Section 35
Tata Group
Started as: A trading company in Bombay, followed by a cotton mill in Nagpur
- founded
- 1868
- founder
- Jamsetji Tata
- headquarters
- Mumbai, Maharashtra
- 180+
- Aggregate revenue of Tata companies, 2024-25 (US$ billion) · 2025
- 10,00,000+
- People employed by Tata companies · 2025
- 328+
- Market value of 26 listed Tata companies, 31 March 2025 (US$ billion) · 2025
- 66%
- Share of Tata Sons held by philanthropic trusts · 2025
The story
Jamsetji Tata began with trading in Bombay in 1868. He soon moved into cotton mills, and then dreamed of things India did not yet have: a steel plant, a power company and a world-class hotel.
His successors built those dreams one by one. Steel came in 1907, an airline in 1932, trucks after 1945 and software services in 1968. Each new business started small and was given years to grow.
Today the group says it has 31 companies, 26 of them listed, and more than one million employees. Two-thirds of Tata Sons, the holding company, is owned by charitable trusts.
Where it works today
SteelAutomobilesIT servicesConsumer goods and retailHotelsAirlinesPowerFinancial services
Main companies
Tata Sons · Tata Steel · Tata Motors · Tata Consultancy Services · Titan · Tata Power · Indian Hotels (Taj) · Tata Consumer Products · Air India
Timeline
- 1868Jamsetji Tata starts a trading company in Bombay.
- 1874Sets up the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company; Empress Mills in Nagpur follows.
- 1903The Taj Mahal Hotel opens in Bombay.
- 1907Tata Iron and Steel Company is founded; the Jamshedpur steel plant follows.
- 1932JRD Tata starts Tata Airlines, which later becomes Air India.
- 1945TELCO is set up to make locomotives and later trucks; it becomes Tata Motors.
- 1968Tata Consultancy Services is set up.
- 2007Tata Steel buys Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus.
- 2008Tata Motors buys Jaguar Land Rover.
- 2022Air India returns to the Tata group.