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Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group, has died at the age of 86, the group said in a statement late Wednesday.
Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years, had been in intensive care at a Mumbai hospital, two sources with direct knowledge of his medical situation said. Reuters earlier on Wednesday.
After graduating in architecture from Cornell University, Tata returned to India and in 1962 began working for the group that his great-grandfather had founded almost a century earlier.
He worked at several Tata companies, including Telco, now Tata Motors Ltd, as well as Tata Steel Ltd, and later made his mark by erasing losses and increasing market share at the group unit National Radio & Electronics Company.
In 1991 he took control of the conglomerate when his uncle JRD. Tata resigned: The passing of the baton came just as India embarked on radical reforms that opened its economy to the world and ushered in an era of high growth.
In one of his first steps, Ratan Tata sought to control the power of some bosses of Tata Group companies, imposing retirement ages, promoting younger people to management positions and increasing control over the companies.
Ratan Tata, a licensed pilot who occasionally flew the company plane, never married and was known for his calm demeanor, relatively modest lifestyle, and philanthropic work.
About two-thirds of the share capital of Tata Sons, the group's holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts.
He founded telecommunications company Tata Teleservices in 1996 and took IT company Tata Consultancy Services, the group's cash cow, public in 2004.
But to grow properly, the group determined it needed to look beyond Indian shores.
The group bought British tea company Tetley in 2000 for $432 million and Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007 for $13 billion, at the time the largest acquisition of a foreign company by an Indian company. Tata Motors then acquired British luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co in 2008 for $2.3 billion.
His leadership at Tata was not without controversy, particularly a bitter public dispute after the company ousted Cyrus Mistry, a scion of the billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji clan, as chairman of Tata Sons in 2016.
The Tata Group said Mistry had failed to turn around poorly performing businesses, while Mistry accused Ratan Tata, who was chairman emeritus of the conglomerate, of interfering and creating an alternative power center in the group.
After retiring from the Tata Group, Ratan Tata became known as a prominent investor in Indian startups, backing companies such as digital payments company Paytm, Ola Electric, a unit of transportation company Ola, and mobile service provider beauty and home Urban Company.
Among his many awards, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, in 2008 for exceptional and distinguished services in commerce and industry.
