Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata • FRANCE 24 English

Now, Ratan Tata, one of India's biggest internationally recognized business leaders, has died at the age of 86. He was the chairman and CEO of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, whose annual revenues exceed $100 billion. That includes worldwide companies in seven business sectors, including Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley Tees. We're going to talk more about this now with Delano D'Souza, who's been taking a closer look at the life of Ratan Tata. Let's start first with this funeral. Is this a sort of state send-off typical for a business tycoon in India? Not at all, Jeannie. That's because Ratan Tata is no ordinary businessman. He comes from a long range, a long lineage of industrialists. Now, the Tata Group is not just a business, but a conglomerate in every sense of the word. That means everything from steel to salt and everything else in between. So that means your television cable operator. It's also retail stores, cars, things like that. Ratan Tata was an extremely wealthy man, a billionaire, as you alluded to in your introduction, in dollar terms. But he didn't go around flaunting his wealth. And this is something that the Indian public really noticed. He loved, of course, the good things in life. He really was fond of his Hermes ties and pocket squares. He did love dogs. He was a bachelor who was extremely guarded about his personal life. But for the Tata Group and Ratan Tata himself, it was all about giving back. In fact, two-thirds of the company's share capital of the holding company Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts. And this is something well-known personalities, including India's prime minister, have been pointing to since news broke last night that Ratan Tata had, in fact, died. Now, Mr. Tata was a member of India's dwindling Parsi community. His body is being cremated and will not, in fact, be laid out in the fire temple, as is the usual practice in Zoroastrianism. That's because of the city of Mumbai's shrinking vulture population. Now, Ratan Tata is survived by a brother, two half-sisters, and a half-brother. And the city of Mumbai itself has declared a day of national mourning. So, Jelana, what really sets Tata apart? Well, it's foreign acquisitions, really, Jeannie. Indian companies were focused inward after the country's independence and economic liberalization in the 1990s. Tata really broke that mold when it came to where Indian companies saw their limitations. In 2000, the company picked up Tetley Tea. I, in fact, started my career working at a business channel in the city of Mumbai. And I remember back in 2007, while I was a journalist there, he made a bid for $12 billion for Coors Steel. This is something that Indian companies didn't do back then. And it was a huge, bold move. And he was successful in doing it. One year later, he made a bid for Jaguar Land Rover. And I remember being in the newsroom and talking with colleagues, and it didn't go unnoticed that an Indian company was picking up British companies for record amounts of money. And it didn't just stop there. It also went into hotels. Taj Hotels picked up Legacy Properties in London. The Pier in New York. The company is also the title sponsor of the New York City Marathon. So Ratan Tata was a visionary. And this is why his send-off is so huge in India today. And he touched a lot of people's lives. And that's not going unnoticed. Thank you.