Ratan Tata cremated with full state honour

Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Corporate leaders, politicians and celebrities joined hundreds of people on Thursday as they bid final adieu to one of India's most respected and internationally recognised business leaders, Ratan Tata, who died aged 86.

Last rites were performed at Mumbai's Worli Crematorium with full state honours in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnais, and Congress leader and former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

Family and friends as well as top officials of Tata group joined the ceremony where Mumbai Police paid tribute to Tata with a gun salute.

Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who transformed a staid group into India's largest and most influential conglomerate with a string of eye-catching deals breathed his last at south Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital at 11.30 pm on October 9.

Maharashtra as well as half a dozen other states declared one day mourning while some official programmes, including a scheduled press conference by Goyal on his US visit, were cancelled in his honour.

Tata Group's flagship IT firm, TCS went ahead with holding its pre-scheduled meeting to approve financial results for the quarter ending September but cancelled a post-earning press conference.

Ratan Tata's body was on Thursday morning taken in a hearse, decked with white flowers, from his home to the NCPA in south Mumbai where it would be kept for people to pay their last respects. Draped in the Indian national flag, his body was kept at a cultural centre.

The last rites were performed as per the Parsi tradition, one of the priests present at the crematorium said.

After the funeral, there will be three more days of rituals which will be conducted at the late industrialist's bungalow in Colaba, south Mumbai, he said.

While several politicians and celebrities made a beeline to pay their last respects, billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who was among the first to reach Breach Candy Hospital on Wednesday night, led India Inc. He reached NCPA with his wife Nita as well as his children Akash and Isha and their spouses to pay last respect to the veteran industrialist.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Aditya Birla group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, veteran banker Deepak Parekh as well as NCP president Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule, and MNS chief Raj Thackeray were among those who paid their last respect.

Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran as well as other senior officials of the conglomerate along with family members were present for most of the day.

Ratan Tata's mortal remains were taken on their final journey to the electric crematorium at Worli.

While traditionally Zoroastrian community lay their departed ones for the vultures to consume at the 'Tower of Silence', Tata's cremation reflected changing traditions in the Parsi community. The dwindling vulture population is leading to the community taking their dead to the electrical crematoriums.

The Prayer Hall at the Worli municipal crematorium offers a place for the death rites of Parsi-Zoroastrians who do not want to be interred in the Tower of Silence.

The last rites of Cyrus Mistry, former chairman of Tata Group and another prominent member of the Parsi community, too were performed at the Worli Crematorium in 2022.

Known for his exemplary business acumen and philanthropic nature, Tata had led the salt-to-software conglomerate for more than two decades during which the group grew more than 70 times. The Tata conglomerate had revenue of USD 165 billion in 2023-24.

Tata had been in a Mumbai hospital since Monday for what the group had initially stated as undergoing check-ups for age-related medical conditions. It had asserted that there was no cause for concern regarding his health but late on Wednesday confirmed his demise without giving the cause of his death.

Tributes poured in from around the world, underlining his popularity that transcended boundaries and generations.

A licensed pilot who occasionally flew the company plane, Tata never married and was known for his relatively modest lifestyle and philanthropic work.

As chairman for more than two decades, he took the staid group global, clinching eye-catching deals, including iconic British assets like steelmaker Corus, luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and world's second-largest tea company Tetley. PTI KK AA PR MR ANZ SHW