Swasth india ratan tata biography
After Kalaari Capital and Jungle Ventures, Ratan Tata joins IDG Ventures India as senior advisor
Rather than trying to define what constitutes leadership, it would be easier to say that you are a leader when you are committed to doing the right thing over the easy or best-for-you thing, and of doing this irrespective of how hard it is.
Living up to his words above, Chairman Emeritus of the Indian Conglomerate, Tata Sons, Mr. Ratan Tata continues to provide his active support to the Indian startup ecosystem. He has now joined the technology venture capital firm of India IDG Ventures India's advisory board as a Senior Advisor. Earlier this year, he has joined Kalaari Capital as advisor and Jungle Ventures as ‘Special Advisor’.
Similar to his roles for the other two venture capital firms, Mr. Tata will be advising IDG Ventures India and portfolio entrepreneurs on its overall business strategy(including business growth, global expansion) and strengthening the organizational leadership ( i.e. team building and leadership). He will also be a special invitee, on selective basis, in portfolio company board meetings on strategic matters.
Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman of IDG Ventures India Advisors believes that Mr. Tata is an icon when it comes to business leadership in the new age India and his rich experience in building businesses and expanding globally from India is of immense value to the portfolio companies.
In its 9th year of operations, IDG Ventures has advised investments in 50 companies, committing over Rs 1,000 crore in the Indian early stage technology venture capital market. IDG Ventures India is an early investor in some of the leading players like Myntra, Lenskart, Zivame, Vserv, Manthan, Perfint, NestAway, Hiree, and Uniphore among others. The VC firm has had successful exits including, Manthan, IVIZ and Myntra acquisition by Flipkart. IDG is one of the most active seed/series A inves
Ratan Tata is no more: Here are some interesting facts about the genteel businessman
Early Life and Education
Born in 1937, Ratan Tatawas the great-grandson of Tata Groupfounder Jamsetji Tata. After his parents’ separation in 1948, he was raised by his grandmother, Navajbai Tata. He attended prestigious schools in Mumbai and Shimla before graduating from Riverdale Country School in New York in 1955. Tata went on to earn degrees in architecture and structural engineering from Cornell University in 1959 and later completed a management program at Harvard Business School in 1975.Career
Tata's career began in 1961 at Tata Steel, where he worked on the shop floor, managing the blast furnace and even shoveling limestone. Despite receiving an offer from IBM, he chose to stay within the family business, starting at the ground level and learning the ropes.Read more: Ratan Tata passes away at 86; meet his successors, the next-gen Tata scions
Achievements at Tata Group
Ratan Tata took over as chairman of Tata Group in 1991, steering the company to international prominence. Under his leadership, the group's revenues skyrocketed more than 40 times, reaching $103 billion by 2016. He played a pivotal role in major acquisitions, such as Tata Motors’ purchase of Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus, both of which expanded Tata Group’s global footprint.Philanthropy and Scholarships
A strong advocate of education, Tata initiated numerous philanthropic efforts. Under his leadership, the Tata Group established a $28 million scholarship fund for Indian students at Cornell University. In 2010, Tata personally donated $50 million to Harvard Business Sc 'Millennial Dumbledore': How Ratan Tata got this unique nickname from Shantanu Naidu
The story behind this title dates back to 2014 when Naidu, then a design engineer at Tata Group, embarked on a mission to protect stray dogs after witnessing a tragic accident involving one.
Love for dogsNaidu and his friends designed collars with reflectors to make stray dogs more visible to drivers, calling the initiative Motopaws. The very next day, Naidu received a message confirming that a dog’s life had been saved by the collar. "I didn’t know if it would work, but when I woke up the next day, I received a message saying that a dog had been saved because of the collar. It felt amazing," Naidu recalled.
Also Read: A Legacy of Innovation: How Ratan Tata impacted millions beyond the boardroom
Facing financial challenges, Naidu’s father advised him to write to Ratan Tata, a known dog lover. Hesitant but hopeful, Naidu sent a handwritten letter and, two months later, was surprised to receive a response from Tata, inviting him to Mumbai, as per reports.
Tata not only funded the Motopaws project but also introduced Naidu to his own dogs. Their bond grew from there, and in 2018, Tata offered Naidu a position as his assistant after Naidu completed his MBA at Cornell University.
Cornell Connection
Shantanu Naidu moved to the USA to pursue an MBA at Cornell University, promising Tata he would work for Tata Trust after graduation. True to his word, upon his return, Naidu received an offer from Tata to be his assistant, which he commenced in 2018.
Both Tata and Naidu share a connection through their education at Cornell University. Tata completed his architecture degree there in 1962, and Naidu earned his MBA from the same institution years later.
Grieving the loss of ‘lighthouse’
Following Tata's passing, Na
Ratan Tata invests in MUrgency, a medical emergency response startup
Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, announced on Tuesday that he has invested in San Francisco based medical emergency response startup, MUrgency Inc. The mobile app makes emergency response available with one tap on a mobile phone in under 9.0 minutes in urban areas.
Story so far
MUrgency Inc(ONE GLOBAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE NETWORK) was founded in 2014 by Indian social entrepreneur Shaffi Mather in Silicon Valley and incubated out of Stanford ChangeLabs. The startup also recently received an investment from Kris Gopalakrishnan and S. D. Shibulal led Axilor Ventures.
MUrgency launched their service in the tri-city area in Punjab, India on 16 February, 2016 with a a responder network of 36 hospital emergency rooms, over 40 ambulances and 350 medical professionals. MUrgency is slated to launch service in Amritsar and Jalandhar in the last week of May, 2016 and cover entire state of Punjab by end June, 2016. Sweta Mangal, Director, Global Emergency Response, MUrgency Inc. said,
While our primary goal is to develop the emergency medical response network, we are widening our service to be an inclusive and comprehensive medical service platform on your mobile phone. The app is live on iOS and Android app stores and several features are accessible across the world already.
In 2004, Shaffi, Sweta and their three friends founded Ziqitza Healthcare Limited(ZHL). Starting from one ambulance, the company eventually became the largest emergency ambulance service in the developing world with operations in 17 states in India and the Gulf (Middle East). ZHL has grown to over 1500 ambulances and 6000 employees transporting between 8000 and 10000 patients every day. As an estimate, ZHL has transported over 5.20 million patients and delivered 10000 babies on board.
Related read from April 2016:Bringing all emergency services under one app – How MUrgency is poised to become