Noel Tata Opposes Tata Sons Listing, Warns Profit May Trump Charity

Asked to define the Tata way, he said it rests on a single premise: "Charity precedes commerce. It's not the other way around." Profits from group companies, he said, become tomorrow's hospital, library and educational institutions, and relief for people in crisis.

He said the model works because of how Tata Sons is owned. "The owner cannot die, the owner cannot be bought, and the owner cannot retire."

Direction fine, delivery in question

Tata said he is not against the conglomerate's strategic push. He questioned whether the group has the discipline to deliver on it.

"I have not questioned the direction of what we've done. I question sometimes the delivery of what we're doing," he said. He asked how projects with a long gestation period can succeed without discipline, and how capital will be allocated to them.

The Trusts, he said, remain ready to back Tata Sons' national projects. He described the group's direction as "philanthropy on one hand, nation building on the other," and said it is independent of leadership and personalities.

Dispute with the board

The remarks come amid Tata's differences with the Tata Sons board over three issues. They are the reappointment of chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran for another five-year term, a planned public offering of Tata Sons, and growing losses in new-age businesses.

Those businesses include aviation, electric vehicle batteries, digital commerce and semiconductors.

Tata, 70, said he applied the same test to the Trusts. He became chairman in October 2024 after Ratan Tata's death and reviewed the Trusts' programs in underserved areas. That review led him to conclude that "impact was more important than expenditure."

He gave examples of what he meant: combining nutrition, water harvesting and agriculture in a single area, and creating jobs for women. "The way in which the household income just goes up when you have a second person earning money in the household," he said.