Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Sons, was conferred the well deserved Knighthood by His Majesty King Charles III
Padma Bhushan Natarajan Chandrasekaran (popularly known as “Chandra”), the Chairman of Tata Sons Private Limited (“Tata Sons”), the holding company of the House of Tata, the largest business conglomerate in India (having a staggering annual revenue of over US$165 billion!), was well deservedly awarded the “The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Civil Division)” Knighthood by His Majesty King Charles III on 14th February, 2025 in recognition of his services to UK-India business relations. This constituted yet another prized feather in Chandra’s already emblazoned cap! Pluming himself on his outstanding life achievement, Chandra said that he was “deeply humbled by this prestigious recognition”.
In the heady days of the British Raj, several prominent Indian personages, including scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose and Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman and literary figures like Rabindranath Tagore (who renounced his knighthood in protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13th April, 1919), were conferred knighthoods. Dorabji Jamshetji Tata, the elder son of Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata (“Jamshetji”), the founder of the House of Tata, was knighted in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India. Ratanji Jamshetji Tata, the younger son of Jamshetji, was knighted for his services to humanity in 1916. And Chandra’s “mentor, guide and friend”, Padma Vibhushan Ratan Naval Tata, received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 2014 in appreciation of his contributions to UK-India relations, investment in the UK and philanthropy. Notably, Bharat Ratna Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was offered a knighthood by the British Government during the Second World War in recognition of his stellar role in channelling three million tons of Tata steel to the British war effort, but declined such an offer because of his avowed opposition to the continuation of British rule in India.
Chandra was born on 2nd June, 1963, into a Tamil Brahmin agricultural family in the quaint village of Mohanur in Tamil Nadu’s backward Namakkal district, some 415 kms west of Chennai. Chandra’s father, Srinivasan Natarajan (who died on 27th February, 2023) was a lawyer who, after his father’s death, returned to the family farm in Mohanur that grew bananas, rice and sugarcane. Chandra could have effortlessly followed in his father’s footsteps and become a farmer. But he was irresistibly drawn to computer science and engineering. The great English poet John Milton in his poem Paradise Regained aptly observed, “The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day.” He had his primary education in the Tamil medium Mohanur Government School. Chandra would walk 3 km every day to his school along with his two elder brothers. For his senior secondary exams, he switched to an English-medium school.
After completing his primary and secondary education, he moved to Tiruchirappalli and attended the Coimbatore Institute of Technology, which awarded him a bachelor’s degree in Applied Sciences. His insatiable thirst for knowledge led him to obtain a Master of Computer Applications degree at the Regional Engineering College in Tiruchirappalli. In the final year of his Master’s programme, he took up a project with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and subsequently joined the company as an intern. Over the next two decades, he steadily ascended the stairs of success and rose through the ranks to become its Chief Operating Officer in 2007 and its Chief Executive Officer in 2009, succeeding Subramanian Ramadorai. Under Chandra’s envisioned and astute stewardship, TCS was one of the first companies to adopt Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to boost its business efficiency. TCS’s foray into these technologies enabled it to maintain its position as one of the leading IT services companies globally. Incredibly, TCS generated consolidated revenues of US$16.5 billion in 2015-16, emerged as the largest private sector employer in India with over 353,000 employees and achieved the highest retention rate in a globally competitive industry.
12th January, 2017 marked a red-letter day in the life of Chandra. He was appointed as the new Executive Chairman of Tata Sons and officially took charge on 21st February, 2017, stepping into the shoes of Ratan Tata, who had become the Interim Chairman of Tata Sons after the exit of Cyrus Pallonji Mistry on 24th October, 2016. Among the noteworthy events that followed his Chairmanship were the Tata Group’s acquisition in 2022 of the run-down and debt-ridden Air India, an airline founded by the Tata family in 1932 and which remained under Tata ownership until it was nationalised in 1953. Unfortunately, all the ambitious dreams of Air India were dashed to the ground when a spine-chilling disaster of epic proportions struck the airline on 12th June, 2025. A heavily fuelled 11-year-old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on a scheduled flight from the Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport in Ahmedabad to London Gatwick Airport crashed approximately 30 seconds after take-off at 1.38 pm IST into the B. J. Medical College in the Meghaninagar neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, pounding the doctors’ quarters and the students’ hostel buildings. The crash killed 241 out of 242 passengers aboard the ill-fated aircraft. It was the first fatal crash and the first hull loss involving a Boeing Dreamliner since its introduction in 2011. Chandra valiantly rose to the occasion and in a sincere, heartfelt internal communiqué on 13th June, 2025, said, “This is one of the darkest days in the Tata Group’s history. Words are no consolation right now, but my thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the people who died and were injured in the crash.” In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic air tragedy, the Tata Group, under the resolute leadership of Chandra and Noel Naval Tata, responded not merely as a corporate conglomerate but as a compassionate institution grounded in the highest traditions of humanism and public service. Echoing the legendary benevolence displayed by Ratan Tata during the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the Tata Sons Board acted with remarkable swiftness, alacrity and sensitivity to address the trauma and needs of the bereaved families.
Within 48 hours of the incident, Tata Sons established a dedicated Relief and Rehabilitation Fund of Rs 500 crore, the Air India Compassion Fund, to provide immediate financial assistance, long-term rehabilitation, counselling support, and education grants to the victims’ families. The fund was designed not as a corporate liability, but as a moral obligation, and was structured to reflect a deep understanding of the long-term consequences of such a tragedy. Chandra and Noel Tata personally supervised the formation of a Special Relief Task Force, comprising psychologists, legal advisors, insurance experts, and humanitarian aid workers to provide on-ground support to families spread across 13 Indian states and 6 foreign countries.
In a heart-wrenching gesture that resonated with the mood of the shell-shocked nation, Chandra flew to Ahmedabad and toured the B.J. Medical College campus, where the aircraft had crashed, killing not just passengers but also several medical students and hospital staff. He met grieving families, consoled distraught parents and issued a public pledge: “No family affected by this tragedy will ever feel abandoned. The Tata Group stands with them not just today, but for as long as it takes.” Under Noel Tata’s guidance, a comprehensive survivor support programme was launched in partnership with Tata Trusts and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. This included full scholarships for children of the deceased up to postgraduate levels, guaranteed job placements within the Tata ecosystem for eligible dependents, and structured grief counselling supported by the Tata Medical Centre in Kolkata.
This extraordinary act of corporate compassion drew poignant parallels to Ratan Tata’s deeply humane response during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, when the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a flagship Tata property, was one of the prime targets. Then too, Ratan Tata had opened his heart and the Group’s coffers to support not just his employees and their families, but also victims unaffiliated with the company, providing lifelong pensions, reconstructing lives, and restoring dignity to the devastated. True to that legacy, Chandra ensured absolute transparency in disbursements and set up an independent oversight panel chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, to monitor fund utilisation. This institutionalised empathy exemplified the noble soul of the Tata Group: a blend of corporate excellence and humanitarian leadership and reinforced Chandra’s legacy not merely as a business icon, but as a man of rare conscience in an age fraught with abject corporate frigidity and apathy.
On 21st March, 2022, Chandra was awarded the coveted Padma Bhushan by President Ram Nath Kovind for excellence in trade and industry. On 16th May, 2023, he was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civilian award, by Ms Catherine Colonna, the former French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in Paris, for his contributions to strengthening the trade relationship between India and France. Chandra wears his achievements lightly. His father diligently taught him lessons in frugality, honesty and perseverance that have stood him in good stead throughout his entire life. He is known to be a well-grounded, family-oriented man. An affable, unassuming and approachable leader, he has a phenomenal capacity for remembering one and all. Chandra’s simplicity, down-to-earthness, personal touch and gentle cordial nature remind me strongly of my titanic friend and sincere well-wisher Dhirajlal “Dhirubhai” Hirachand Ambani, who also came from a very humble background. Chandra is known far and wide as the “Marathon Man” for his indefatigable passion for long-distance running and completing marathons worldwide. He completed his fastest personal marathon record on 2nd November, 2014, at the TCS New York City Marathon. He now runs on Mumbai’s beaches at the crack of dawn every day, and even ventures as far as 16 km. Chandra has a discernibly soft side, too. He once flew back from the US to attend to his dog Ray, a Beagle, who died of cancer at the age of seven in 2014, after struggling with the disease for several months.
To unwind, he likes reading books and listening to South Indian classical music and old Tamil film songs. As a young man, he learned Vedic hymns from a scholar. Chandra resides in Mumbai with his wife Lalitha and son Pranav in a 6000 sq. ft. luxurious duplex in the iconic 33 South building in Gopalrao Deshmukh Marg (popularly known as “Pedder Road”), Cumballa Hill, a high-end area of South Mumbai, cheek by jowl with Mukesh Ambani’s 27-storeyed residence “Antilia” (named after the mythical Spanish phantom island of Antillia!), which Chandra purchased in 2022.
Chandra’s truly remarkable journey from a farm boy of modest means living in a nondescript village to becoming the Chairman of Tata Sons and an indisputable world business leader is a glorious example of leadership, innovation and grit and is nothing short of a modern-day rags-to-riches tale. His ability to overcome adversity, face challenges and embrace new ideas is a living testament to his monumental qualities of leadership. Chandra’s story is a reminder that with vision, determination, magnanimity, unwavering focus, a hard work ethic and a tireless striving for excellence, business leaders can change the face of the world. His captivating story invigorates millions of young professionals and change-makers to sincerely believe that if they pursue their innate skills and creativity through relentless effort, persistence and commitment, the sky’s the limit!
A modern-day rags-to-riches tale that inspires
Chandra was born on 2nd June, 1963 into a Tamil Brahmin agricultural family in the quaint village of Mohanur in Tamil Nadu’s backward Namakkal district some 415 kms west of Chennai.
Chandra’s father Srinivasan Natarajan (who died on 27th February, 2023) was a lawyer who after his father’s death returned to the family farm in Mohanur that grew bananas, rice and sugarcane. Chandra could have effortlessly followed in his father’s footsteps and become a farmer. But he was irresistibly drawn to computer science and engineering.
(The author is an internationally reputed senior lawyer, avid debater, public speaker, writer, broadcaster, telecaster, artist, painter, sculptor, music critic and filmmaker. Views are personal)