 "Tata trusts get a shot in the arm from Ratan Tata")
Ratan Tata will be moving to a new office at Mumbai’s World Trade Centre in some time. His current office at One Forbes has become too small to handle the growing volume of philanthropic work that the Tata Trusts are handling under the 76-year-old’s supervision.
Fruition from one of his biggest initiatives came last month when 20 post graduate research students enrolled in the Tata Centre for Technology & Design at IIT Bombay. The centre that has been created by a donation of Rs 95 crore by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust is more than a token contribution to promote higher technological education.
“It’s the brain child of Mr Tata to develop frugal solutions to meet the technological needs of people at the bottom of the pyramid,” says Ravi Sinha, dean alumni & corporate relations at IIT Bombay.
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The trusts’ contribution to the centre comes not only in identifying the issues of technological intervention but also in developing a business case for that and reaching people with the solution. “This is a great motivation as we can concentrate on our strength of technological development,” says Sinha.
This comes about two years after the first such centre was funded by Tata Trusts and Tata Group of companies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US with same motive. About 60 research scholars from MIT are currently having a joint workshop with the students at the centre at IIT Bombay.
The Tata Trusts control 66 per cent of the shares of Tata Sons, the holding company for over 100 companies in the group. The Tatas are conspicuously absent from coveted billionaire lists as founders bequeathed most of their personal wealth to about 16 trusts they created to give back to the society.
Ratan Tata became chairman of both Tata Sons and Tata Trusts in the early nineties after the legendary J R D Tata passed on the baton to him. He retired as the chairman of Tata Sons in December 2012 and now fully concentrates on the work of Tata Trusts.
“There is so much work going on now as he is completely focused on the trusts’ activities,” says A N Singh, trustee and adviser at Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust, one of the largest in the 16. The trusts are now working in the areas of nutrition & health, clean water to rural masses and challenges of health & hygiene. “In the last year and a half, Tata has brought better measurement of standards besides accelerated efforts of trusts activities,” says Singh.