There has been a rejig of top level management of the Tata Trusts – a cluster of charitable organisations that control 66% of the 100 billion $ Tata Sons group, which is the holding company of the salt to software conglomerate, which happens to be India’s largest. The restructuring comes on the back of a crucial board meeting on Wednesday and includes two high profile inductions and one exit from the trust.
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust had two fresh inductees, the first being that of 62 year old half brother of Ratan Tata, Noel Tata, who is the chairman of Trent and MD of Tata International. The second induction was that of philanthropist H.C. Jehangir who is currently spearheading the healthcare mission at Jehangir Hospital in Pune.
While the new appointments made news, it was the resignation of R. Venkataramanan – Managing Trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and a Ratan Tata loyalist that is being closely watched. Venkataramanan’s resignation comes after the Income Tax Department on 6th Feb withdrew a long standing tax exemption to Sir Dorabji Tata Trust citing a 2.66 crore ₹ compensation to him, which violated the Income Tax Act. Venkataramanan was also named in a probe by the CBI last year on allegations that he bribed government officials to obtain a flying permit for Air Asia India (part of the Tata Group) when he was a director. Both, the Income Tax and the CBI cases are believed to have emerged from documents submitted by Cyrus Mistry after he was unceremoniously removed as Chairman of Tata Sons in 2016.
Although the official statement of the Tata Group is that Venkataramanan was relieved of his duties because he has completed his five year stint as the managing trustee, circumstances of the case would have you think otherwise.
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