In its 150 years of existence, Tata Group has had only seven chairmen. But that was not the only reason many people were shocked when Cyrus Mistry was removed from the chair on October 24, 2016. Mistry was handpicked by his predecessor, Ratan Tata, and propped up by the clout his father, Pallonji Mistry, carried in Bombay House, the Tata headquarters. The Mistrys own an 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group.
Mistry waged a legal battle against his removal, which was widely seen as an attempt to prove a point rather than out of a desire to get back the chair. On December 18, 2019, he secured a major victory when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ruled that the actions taken against him were illegal and he should be reinstated as the chairman of Tata Sons. Tata was given four weeks to comply with the judgment, but was ordered that Mistry be reinstated as a director immediately.
It came as a surprise, but people close to Mistry said it was justice done. “For the Tata Sons board members (the NCLAT judgment is a) devastating commentary on their illegal, unethical and spineless behaviour,” Nirmalya Kumar, who was a member of the group executive council set up by Mistry and head of strategy at Tata Group, told THE WEEK. Soon after Mistry’s removal, the council was disbanded and Kumar was asked to leave.
This story is from the January 05, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 05, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Divides And Dividends
Contrasting narratives on the scrapping of Article 370 define the elections in Jammu and Kashmir
Playing it cool
Everybody knows what 420 means in the Indian context. But in American parlance it is something very different: four-twenty or 4/20 or April 20 denotes cannabis celebration; its cultural references are rooted in the hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s.
The heroine's new clothes
Who else but Sanjay Leela Bhansali could bring on a wardrobe reset like the one in his just-dropped period piece—an eight-part Netflix series called Heeramandi?
AI & I
Through her book Code Dependent—shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction—Madhumita Murgia gives voice to the voiceless multitudes impacted by artificial intelligence
Untold tales from war
Camouflaged is a collection of 10 deeply researched stories, ranging from the world wars to the 26/11 terror attacks
Hair force
Sheetal Mallar, in her photobook Braided, uses hair as a metaphor to tell a story that is personal yet universal
THE WHITE TIGER GAVE ME CONFIDENCE IN MY ABILITIES
The first time Adarsh Gourav made an impression was in Ramin Bahrani's 2021 film The White Tiger, a gripping adaptation of Aravind Adiga's Booker-winning novel.
The art of political protest
The past doesn’t always remain in the past. Sometimes, it emerges in the present, reminding us about the universality and repetitiveness of the human experience. Berlin’s George Grosz Museum, a tiny gem, is a startling reminder that modern political and social ills are not modern. Grosz lived through World Wars I and II, shining a torch into the heart of darkness in high-ranking men and women—who were complicit in the collapse of the world as they knew it.
REFUELLING DYING SATELLITES
A Chennai company is making waves in the world of space tech startups
DIVERSITY IN UNITY
THE SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY IN THE US HAS SEVERAL THINGS IN COMMON, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS, THERE ARE WIDELY DIFFERING OPINIONS AND FEELINGS
