From radios to the runway, Tata’s investment legacy in the State

Ratan N. Tata during the signing of an MoU between the Telangana government and Tata Trusts for state-wide cancer care, in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit: File Photo

It was not the first time that Ratan Tata faced a hostile business environment in West Bengal. It was something that he accepted, and gamed it. In 2010, he reminisced about his days when he headed the National Radio & Electronics Co. (named director-in-charge of Nelco in 1971) and travelled to Hyderabad to sell radios and television sets.

“Our task was to beat Philips and we tried to sell radios and TVs here, never with success,” he candidly admitted. He said the atmosphere in the city was not congenial for locating business then. “But how different it is today,” he was quoted saying to The Hindu.

The business environment had indeed changed for Mr. Tata. It could be seen from the fact that between 2003 and 2014, he dealt with five chief ministers from different parties who had only one appeal for him — “invest in our state”. Mr. Tata just followed the path charted by the pioneers of Systems Engineering and Cybernetics Centres in Hyderabad that was actively backed by F.C. Kohli. On November 7, 2003, Mr. Tata inaugurated one of the largest centres of Tata Consultancy Services at the Deccan Park — a landmark russet coloured building designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta. The building quickly became a landmark. The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh at that time was N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Within five years, Mr. Tata was being wooed by Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to move the Nano car plant from Singur in West Bengal to the State. He dashed off a letter. Later, the State appointed two bureaucrats to work on the Tata group to get the factory. It even earmarked locations in Medak and Warangal for the proposed plant. But that was not to be.

It was while sitting with chief minister K. Roshaiah on November 7, 2010, during the delivery of the first helicopter cabin of Sikorsky S-12, that Mr. Tata announced his plans for the aviation industry. On February 14, 2011, the groundbreaking ceremony for the three aerospace manufacturing projects at Adibhatla had a different chief minister, N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. Mr. Tata was not in attendance, but the event showed political continuity for a State that was keen to attract investments.

Within three years, after the separate State of Telangana was carved out, Mr. Tata attended the inauguration of the Schulich School of Business. The Chief Minister then was K. Chandrasekhar Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi), who spelt out plans for a single-window policy for entrepreneurs and five lakh acres of land for industries in Telangana. Within a few years, Mr. Tata was posing for a selfie inside a tech incubator with K. T. Rama Rao, the then IT Minister of Telangana.

From a nascent electronic market to a mature state with keenness on attracting investments, Mr. Tata saw it all, in Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, and Telangana.