Tata's Succession Test For Indian Capitalism

Tata Sons' Next Chair Faces A High-Stakes Balancing Act

By Govindraj Ethiraj

When Natarajan Chandrasekaran steps down as Chairman of Tata Sons in February 2027, ending a decade-long tenure, his exit will trigger more than a routine boardroom succession.

It will force a referendum on the direction of Indian corporate capitalism.

The Chairman of Tata Sons does not merely oversee a holding company; he sits atop a sprawling industrial empire comprising more than two dozen publicly listed entities, from tech titan Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to Tata Motors and Tata Steel, alongside volatile unlisted ventures like the recently reclaimed, but still struggling, Air India.

Moreover, in the nature of conglomerates, the ultimate accountability for strategic missteps or breakthroughs lands directly on the Tata Group chairman’s desk.

Though all Tata Group companies have empowered and seasoned CEOs and MD to run their businesses, as Chandrasekaran was when he ran TCS.

The Professional Steward Model

India’s commercial landscape has historically belonged to family-run dynasties.

But while families like the Ambanis and Adanis maintain active owner-manager control, the Tatas have attempted professional stewardship.

Though the possibility remains that a family scion, such as Noel Tata or one of his children, could mount a bid for the chair, modern precedent favors a professional drawn from the group’s executive ranks.

The role also demands a technocratic mindset capable of managing hard, physical infrastructure or manufacturing at scale.

Technocrats often come from engineering backgrounds and some of India’s big investments would likely, though not necessarily, be driven by such business leaders.

Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani is a chemical engineer by training from Mumbai’s UDCT.

Incidentally, Cyrus Mistry, Chandrasekaran’s predecessor and Ratan Tata’s successor was a civil engineer from the Imperial College, London.

It is another matter that Ratan Tata, an architect from Cornell University, and Mistry, whose family owned a substantial stake in Tata Sons, had a rather messy falling out.

Quarterly Returns Versus Long Bets

Under Chandrasekaran, a masters in computer applications from Trichy and who started his career with TCS, Tata aligned its balance sheet with New Delhi’s strategic industrial priorities, deploying capital into iPhone manufacturing and multi-billion-dollar semiconductor foundries.

Like its peers in energy and ports, the group recognised that long-term outperformance requires pairing private capital with national ambition.

The supreme test for Chandrasekaran’s successor will be managing the tension between Dalal Street’s demand for quarterly returns and the prolonged gestation periods of high-tech manufacturing, a point highlighted by veteran market analyst Deven Choksey in a conversation with this writer last week.

The easier path for any CEO is conservative cash preservation and margin optimisation.

But deciding whether to finance the next wave of data centers, semiconductor fabs, electric vehicle supply chains, and defense hardware, or whether to hold onto sentiment-driven money pits like Air India, requires a risk tolerance level higher than normal.

For all the recent challenges, India is still considered one of the most promising aviation markets in the world.

The Cost Of Caution

The stakes extend far beyond the walls of Bombay House.

If India’s private titans lose their nerve and retreat into defensive balance sheet management, the government will inevitably step into the breach with state-directed capital and industrial policy.

That outcome rarely bodes well for economic efficiency.

The next leader of Tata Sons must be more than a prudent manager of legacy assets; they must possess the vision to take the giant bets that keep private enterprise at the center of India’s economic future.

Building Wealth For A Longer Life

Longer lives. Rising costs. Market volatility. Uncertain returns.

The assumptions that once shaped retirement planning are being challenged, and the rules of long-term wealth creation are changing with them.

The Core, in partnership with Spotify Unlock, invites a select group of senior leaders, founders and investors to a closed-door conversation on Building Wealth for a Longer Life, led by Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder & CIO, Marcellus Investment Managers.

August 25, 2026 | 8:30 AM | Late Checkout

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Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads

Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:

After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.

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“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”

Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.

Learn More

Rs 1 trillion

That’s how much market capitalisation five of India’s 10 most valuable companies lost last week, as a weak market hit some of the country’s biggest firms.

Origin: Elevated crude oil prices, renewed geopolitical uncertainty and mixed global cues weighed on investor sentiment.

Biggest Decliners:

• Tata Consultancy Services: Rs 34,263 crore

• Reliance Industries: Rs 31,869 crore

• State Bank of India: Rs 25,892 crore

• HDFC Bank: Rs 7,165 crore

• ICICI Bank: Rs 2,793 crore

However, the sell-off wasn’t across the board. 

Gainers:

• LIC: Rs 26,438 crore

• Bharti Airtel: Rs 20,592 crore

• Bajaj Finance: Rs 3,549 crore

• Larsen & Toubro: Rs 2,491 crore

• Hindustan Unilever: Rs 2,079 crore

Future: With global cues, crude prices and geopolitical risks continuing to shape investor sentiment, large-cap stocks could remain sensitive to external market movements in the near term.

India Caps Daily LPG Output

India has set a maximum daily cooking gas production target of 63,810 metric tons for state-run and private refineries, aiming to secure domestic supplies and build buffers after the West Asia war disrupted fuel flows, according to an August 13 government order.

Overview: Under the order, companies must maintain adequate infrastructure for storing and transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), either directly or via railways and road tankers, to meet their specified quotas. The government will revise the targets every January and July to account for new production and additional output from existing refineries.

Setting: India had been sourcing about 90% of its cooking gas imports from West Asia before the war on Iran disrupted supplies from March, due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Among individual targets, Reliance Industries' domestic-focused refinery must produce 18,000 tons a day, while ONGC, Oil India and GAIL are expected to contribute 10% of the nationwide target combined.

Food Firms Clean Up

Six food companies have corrected misleading labels and trademarks after receiving regulatory notices, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said in a post on X. 

Catch Up Quick: Livyor Ventures withdrew the claims “vegan” and “healthy” from its roasted edamame beans. The company said it had printed the claims inadvertently and has begun revising its packaging and destroying existing non-compliant stock. Rajasthan Agro and General Industries removed misleading claims, stopped using PPM references and changed its trademark. Other companies changed trademarks, removed claims about their products, halted production of non-standardised water or delisted products from their websites.

Pivot: FSSAI said the companies took corrective action promptly after receiving notices for violating food labelling and advertising rules.

The action forms part of a broader enforcement drive targeting claims that could mislead consumers or create an erroneous impression about a product. Previously, FSSAI also told food companies to reconsider claims using terms such as “100%”, “healthy”, “organic” and “no added sugar”.

Small Cities, Global Spend

More than half (53%) of India’s forex demand now comes from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, according to a report by travel agency Thomas Cook, which analysed its transaction data from April 2025 to March 2026 across leisure travel, education and corporate travel.

Breakdown: Tier 2 cities accounted for 41% of demand, while Tier 3 cities contributed 12%. Metro and Tier 1 cities made up the remaining 47%.

The report also found that 25% of customers now transact digitally, while DIY forex usage has grown 50% year-on-year over the past two years. Travellers are also buying forex closer to departure, with the typical purchase window shrinking from 10-14 days to four-seven days.

The Turning Point: India’s outbound travel market is becoming “more digital, more experience-led and increasingly diversified beyond traditional corridors”, with travellers seeking greater control over international spending and easier access to local currencies, said Sridhar Keppurengan, Head of Cross-Border Payments for India and South Asia at Visa. 

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