Shaking The Foundations—Page 2
The son of a Parsi trader from Bombay, group founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata knew how to turn a profit. But J.N. also had a patrician vision of spreading wealth and lifting a nation. In a 1902 letter to his son about building a workers' city around his Tata Steel works, he deplored the squalor of industrial England and anticipated what would become a standard for urban planning: "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens." After his death in 1904, the city took his name, becoming Jamshedpur. Tata Steel introduced a series of worker benefits that would become common only much later in the West, such as the eight-hour working day in 1912, maternity benefits in 1928 and profit-sharing in 1934. Today Jamshedpur, with free housing, free hospitals and free schools, sports stadiums and clean streets, remains the envy of the country. In 2004, the U.N. chose it—along with Melbourne and San Francisco—as one of six examples of urban-planning excellence.

J.N. Tata's ideals survive today. Tata Sons, the holding company that manages the group, is 65.8% owned by 11 charitable trusts, which spent $379.2 million on social causes in 2003-04 alone. Over the following 12 months, Tata companies donated another $97.8 million. Beneficiaries range from a host of Tata educational, health and scientific institutes that dot India to the Ganges River's giant mahseer fish, saved from extinction by a Tata-funded breeding program.

The group's corporate piety extends to the boss' pay. Though the business house carries his name, Ratan Tata merely draws a salary from Tata Sons. And while hardly poor, he takes personal modesty seriously. Tall, guarded and retaining the outsider's accent he picked up in an earlier life as a trainee architect in the U.S., he is famously private. He lives with his two German shepherds, Tito and Tango, in the same second-floor apartment in Bombay that he has kept for 20 years. He is one floor below his stepmother, and neighbors say they have never known him to throw a party. His one indulgence apart from his dogs—he is frequently spotted muddying his pinstripes as he plays with them in a park near his home—is a collection of cars. Apparently embarrassed by the extravagance, he excuses his interest as stemming from a love of design, not show. "I drive them periodically," he says, "and then back to the garage."

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