Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was an Indian aviator, industrialist, entrepreneur and chairman of Tata Group. Born into the Tata family of India, he was the son of noted businessman Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his wife Suzanne Brière.
J.R.D. Tata created India’s first airline and oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial empire.
After studying in France, Japan, and England, Tata served in the French army for a year. He had planned to study engineering at the University of Cambridge but was compelled to return to India to assume his role in the Tata family business in 1925 as his father was seriously sick. In 1929, he became one of the first Indians to gain a commercial pilot’s license. In 1932 Tata established Tata Air Mail, a courier service connecting Karachi, Ahmadabad,Mumbai, and Chennai. In 1938, when Tata took charge as chairman of the Tata Group, he was, at age 34. He rebranded his airmail service as Tata Airlines, making it India’s first domestic carrier, and in 1946 he changed the rapidly growing company’s name to Air India. Over the next half-century Tata strengthened existing businesses such as steel, power, and hotels and drove the group to diversify its interests to include chemicals, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and information technology. When Air India was nationalized in 1953, Tata was retained as chairman, a position that he held until 1978. In 1991 he stepped down from Tata Sons at age 87. Under his guidance, several institutions were established to promote scientific, medical, and artistic endeavours in India. These included the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Tata Memorial Hospital, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the National Institute of Advanced Sciences, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts. He was an early advocate of family planning and in 1971 he created the Family Planning Foundation. Tata received a number of awards, including the Padma Vibhushan (1957), and the United Nations Population Award (1992). In 1992 he received India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.