BJP MP demands Bharat Ratna for Ratan Tata

New Delhi, Mar 9 (PTI) BJP MP Govindbhai Laljibhai Dholakia on Monday urged the government to confer Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honour, on noted industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Naval Tata posthumously.

Raising the demand in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP member said that awarding Bharat Ratna to Ratan Tata would not just be about the individual, it would be about his nation-first spirit.

Ratan 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, died in October 2024 at the age of 86.

Educated at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, the veteran industrialist worked on the shop floor at the family-run group after returning to India in 1962.

He gained experience in several Tata Group firms before being named director in charge of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co., in 1971.

He became chairman of Tata Industries a decade later and, in 1991, took over as the chairman of the Tata Group from his uncle, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD), who had been in charge for more than half a century. PTI NKD DRR