A video is being shared on social media claiming that the former chairman of Tata Group, Ratan Tata while responding to a reporter’s question, explained why he hasn’t become as rich as the Reliance Group Chairman, Mukesh Ambani. This video shows the visuals of a couple of Ratan Tata’s interviews. The post claims that Ratan Tata described himself as an industrialist rather than a businessman like Mukesh Ambani. Also, this post claims that Ratan Tata in these interviews expressed his desire to see India as a happy nation rather than an economic superpower. Let’s verify the claims made in the post.
Claim: Ratan Tata’s response on why he hasn’t become as rich as Mukesh Ambani.
Fact: In both these interviews, Ratan Tata hasn’t made any statement comparing the Tata Group’s wealth with that of the Reliance Group Chairman, Mukesh Ambani. Ratan Tata is an industrialist who served in different positions for both the Tata Group and Tata Sons. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, we found full versions of these interviews on ‘CNBC-TV18’ and ‘Stanford Graduate School of Business’ YouTube channels. They can be seen here and here. When we searched to check whether Ratan Tata has made any such statements in these interviews, we found that he has not made any such statement comparing his or Tata Group’s wealth with that of Reliance Group Chairman, Mukesh Ambani. In both these interviews, Ratan Tata explained the ideology of the TATA Group in serving customer needs and improving the qualities of the communities they serve globally. While responding to a question in the ‘CNBC-TV18’ interview, Ratan Tata explained the choices that the Tata family could have made to become tremendously wealthy rather than setting up institutions for the country.
In 2011, ‘The Times’ news website in London has published an article alleging that Ratan Tata had made a controversial statement on Mukesh Ambani’s opulent lifestyle. But Ratan Tata had immediately clarified that the statements published by ‘The Times’ news website are misinterpreted. The statement, “I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country.”, was made by J.R.D Tata, not Ratan Tata.
Tata Group is a conglomerate with many companies under its fold such as Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals Limited, and others. The stock information of these companies can be seen here. ‘Tata Sons’ is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata group of companies. 66% of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation, and art and culture. Ratan Tata is an industrialist who served in various positions in the Tata group of companies. But Ratan Tata does not own the Tata Group.
To sum it up, Ratan Tata hasn’t compared his or Tata Group’s wealth with that of Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
