Ratan Tata, the doyen of Indian industry, was on Thursday inducted as a member of the Board of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), a rare distinction for an Indian in the Chinese Government-backed influential body.
“This is the first time a senior Indian business leader was accorded the distinction,” K Nagraj Naidu, India’s Consul General in Guangzhou, who is attending the BFA being held at held Boao -- a picturesque coastal town in south China’s Hainan province the news agency.It is also a recognition for Tatas as a global conglomerate, he said.The 15-member Board of BFA included former Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, former Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badwai, former Singapore prime minister Goh Chok Tong and former prime minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin besides former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.