HYDERABAD, Aug 12 (Bernama) — The chairman of Indian business giant Tata, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, is stepping down after failing to get unanimous board support for another term.
Chandrasekaran, 63, a company veteran of 40 years has been the conglomerate’s chief since 2017. His term as the chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, comes to an end on February 20 next year.
The proposal earlier this year to give him another five years at the helm did not receive the support of a key board figure.
“Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust had unanimously resolved and recommended the extension of my next term for a period of five years, which was recorded and recommended by the Tata Sons Nomination and Remuneration Committee and the Board. Subsequently, the resolution was tabled in the Tata Sons Board on Feb 24, 2026.
“However, the proposal was not carried through because one of the Board Members did not support it, and in the absence of unanimous support, I chose to defer the decision,” Chandrasekaran said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to the philanthropic trusts that control Tata Sons.
He did not name that board member but it has been widely reported that Noel Tata, the chairman of Tata Trusts, which owns about 66 per cent of Tata Sons, had differences with Chandrasekaran and did not extend support to him.
Tata Group, which owns companies like Air India and information technology firm TCS, is a household name in India, and operates in a range of sectors, including energy, aerospace, consumer goods, food and hotels.
The annual general meeting (AGM) of Tata Sons scheduled for August 18 has gained greater public significance after Chandrasekaran’s statement.
A master’s degree holder in computer science, Chandrasekaran joined Tata in 1987 and was named the chief executive officer of TCS in 2009.
He became the first non-Parsi chairman of the 158-year-old business group months after Cyrus Mistry was ousted in October 2016 following a feud with Tata Group patriarch Ratan Tata.
Mistry died in a road crash in September 2022 at the age of 54 and Ratan Tata passed away aged 86 in October 2024.
— BERNAMA