\As the city geared up to celebrate the 117th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna JRD Tata on Thursday, rich tributes have started pouring for the great pioneer.
From 1926, when on the death of his father he became a Director of Tata Sons at the age of 22 and then its Chairman 12 years later, till his death in 1993, JRD Tata’s life was one of continuous and outstanding achievement for the national cause. As leader of India’s largest and most successful group of industrial enterprises, he made an enormous contribution to the development and growth of the nation.
Born in Paris on July 29, 1904, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata was the son of Jamsetji’s nephew Ratanji Dadabhai Tata and his French wife Sooni. The Tatas had five children who grew up and schooled in France, and sometimes in Bombay whenever the family visited the city. Though JRD would rather have been in Cambridge, he had to serve the French Army for a year in 1924 instead. The next year, RD Tata recalled him to Bombay to join the Tatas and placed him under the charge of John Peterson, the Director-in-charge of Tata Steel at Bombay House.
Through the ups and downs of the decades that followed, Tatas had the good fortune to be steered by a man who stood for all the ideals that were dear to Jamsetji such as the principles of justice and equity.