THE NIMBLE GIANT

The Tata group is a heavyweight in the BT500 list of India's most valuable companies with 16 firms, from IT behemoth TCS to Titan, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, and Trent, among others

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

THE TATA GROUP CONGLOMERATES LEADS AMONG IN THE BT500 LIST

MENTION TATA POWER, and the uninitiated may think of an archaic electricity provider. Yet the company is more than just that.

To Praveer Sinha, Tata Power’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, the effort is to constantly reinvent the century-old utility company to one that is new-age, sustainable, technology-oriented and customer-centric. “Our presence across the energy value chain means we don’t just produce power but are also responsible for taking it to the end consumer,” Sinha says.

Tata Power is definitely a large company, but it is just one of multiple businesses that the eponymous salt-to-software conglomerate owns. Other prominent ones include Tata Consultancy Services, Titan Company, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and Indian Hotels, apart from businesses in the retail, chemicals, consumer brands, electronics sectors, and much more.

If there is a common thread that runs through this diversified conglomerate, it is the relentless focus on keeping pace with the changing needs of the dynamic world we live in. For instance, themes like green steel, electric vehicles, and artificial intelligence will dominate the growth story in the foreseeable time to come. Investors too like that new theme and the new way of doing business. The group is consciously ensuring that its companies are also in tune with these changes. A key development for the conglomerate after the demise of Ratan Tata has been the elevation of Trent’s boss Noel Tata as Chairman of Tata Trusts, who has also moved into the board of Tata Sons, the group’s holding company.