Ratan Tata, the businessman who inherited one of India’s oldest conglomerates and transformed it through a string of eye-catching deals into a global empire, has died. He was 86.
As chairman for more than two decades beginning in 1991, Tata rapidly expanded the 156-year-old business house. It now has operations in more than 100 countries and clocked $165 billion in revenue for the year ended March 2024.
Through more than two dozen listed firms, the conglomerate makes products ranging from coffee and cars to salt and software, runs airlines and introduced India’s first superapp. It has also partnered with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. for a $11 billion chip fabrication plant in India and is said to be planning an iPhone assembly plant.