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JRD
Tata – A Profile
India's first pilot; established Air India International
as India's first international airline; Chairman of Tata &
Sons for 50 years; recipient of Bharat Ratna in 1992... there
are many personas of this one personality. Enterprising, indomitable
and undaunted – JRD Tata is the pioneer who was driven
by the spirit of the skies.
Born on July 29, 1904 in Paris, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy
Tata, was fondly referred to as JRD by commoner and king.
Representing an exalted idea of Indian-ness: progressive,
benevolent, ethical and compassionate, JRD Tata is recognized
as the most enterprising Indian entrepreneurs of all times.
Recognised as the fourth Chairman of the Tata Group at the
young age of 34 only, JRD is credited with placing the Tata
Group on the international map.
On the personal front, flying was a passion with JRD. He
was the first person to qualify within India to fly. He got
his license, which bore on it Number 1, on 10 February 1929.
As an aviator and pioneer flier, he was the one who brought
commercial aviation to India. JRD went on to establish Air-India
International in 1948 and became the president of Inter-national
Air Transport Association (IATA) within 10 years of its establishment.
He remained at the helm of Air India till 1978, making it
one of the most efficient airlines in the world.
Nobody could have guessed that this is how destiny would
unfold, when JRD was born to RD Tata, a business partner and
relative of Jamsetji Tata, and his French wife Sooni. JRD,
the second of four siblings, was educated in France, Japan
and England before being drafted into the French army for
a mandatory one-year period. JRD wanted to extend his stint
in the forces (to avail of a chance to attend a renowned horse-riding
school), but his father would have none of it. Leaving the
French army saved JRD his life, because shortly thereafter,
the regiment he served in was wiped out while on an expedition
in Morocco. |
JRD then set
his mind on securing an engineering degree from Cambridge,
but his father summoned him back to India (JRD would forever
regret not being able to attend university). He soon found
himself on the threshold of a business career in a country
he was far from familiar with.
JRD entered the Tatas as an unpaid apprentice in December
1925. His mentor in business was John Peterson, a Scotsman
who had joined the Group after serving in the Indian Civil
Service. At 22, soon after his father passed away, he was
on the board of Tata Sons, the Group's flagship company. In
1929, aged 25, he surrendered his French citizenship to embrace
the country that would become the central motif of his life.
In the same year on February 10, JRD became the first Indian
to pass the pilot's examination. With this distinctive honor
of being India's first pilot, he was instrumental in giving
wings to India by building Tata Airlines, which ultimately
became Air India. His passion for flying was fulfilled with
the formation of the Tata Aviation Service in 1932.
At the age of 34, in 1938, JRD was elected Chairman of Tata
& Sons making him the youngest head of the largest industrial
group in India. His leadership at Tata Sons, at the beginning,
had 14 enterprises which half a century later had expanded
to a conglomerate of 95 enterprises. During his tenure, the
group expanded into diverse fields such as chemicals, automobiles,
tea and information technology. Breaking with the common practice
of having members of one's own family run different operations
in a business, JRD urged to bring in professionals to the
table. He turned the Tata Group into a business federation
where entrepreneurial talent and expertise were encouraged
to flower.
During his tenure, JRD initiated a program of closer "employee
association with management" to give workers a stronger
voice in the affairs of the company. He, for the first time,
pioneered the system of developing ‘employee welfare
schemes’ in corporate India and steered the principles
of an eight-hour working day, free medical aid, workers' provident
fund and accident compensation schemes, which were later,
adopted as statutory requirements in India.
Under JRD’s aegis, in the year 1979, Tata Steel instituted
a new practice; a worker is deemed to be "at work"
from the moment he leaves home for work till he returns home
from work. Hence the company is financially liable to the
worker if any mishap takes place on the way to and from work.
JRD stepped down from his position as Chairman in 1991,
to hand over the baton to Sri. Ratan Tata.
Self-effacing, modest, wistful and endearing are a few of
the adjectives used to describe JRD. During the 89 years of
his life and as an established corporate citizen of India,
JRD Tata was honoured with a number of awards. He received
the Padma Vibhushan in 1957 for his remarkable contribution
to the aviation industry, the Guggenheim Medal for aviation
in 1988. In 1992, because of his selfless humanitarian endeavors,
JRD Tata was awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Bharat
Ratna-one of the rarest instances in which this award was
granted during a person's lifetime. In the same year, JRD
Tata was also bestowed with the United Nations Population
Award for his crusading endeavors towards initiating and successfully
implementing the family planning movement in India, much before
it became an official government policy.
JRD and his wife, Thelma, whom he married after a Paris
romance in 1930, did not have any children, but JRD always
appeared most comfortable with kids. Be it adult or children,
to him, it was people who mattered. With his demise on November
29, 1993, in a Geneva hospital, an epoch had come to an end.
A noble bit of India - and Indian-ness - was gone
forever. |
