Ratan Tata
On 5JUL2012, Ratan Tata appeared with Judith Rodin on Charlie Rose and spoke about corporate social responsibility and how 4.5% of his net profit goes back into the community.
Ratan spoke about India’s biggest problems: Energy, Infrastructure, & Water.
He viewed these issues through the lens of population, but considers population growth a two edged sword. On one hand, Population gives India the largest working age population by 2025, providing a great sense of power, but also creates issues with feeding, educating, and providing jobs to those people. He also noted India’s notorious issues with logistics and getting India’s often abundant food supply to the right places during droughts and famine.
On the Global Economy:
Tata sees the global economy as grim and thinks the US And Europe are still in for a rough time. However, he feels the US will be the first to recover, partly due to the innovative nature of the US economy. He mentions the opportunities for South-South trade and further regionalism, specifically within Asia.
On the Trade Relationship With China:
He sees the trade relationship not as adversarial but not necessarily in a positive light. Tata feels both parties mistrust one another due to all the counterbalancing actions within the region (e.g. China’s relationship with Pakistan vs US’ relationship with India).
He also addressed China being the largest auto market in the world and why Tata doesn’t sale cars in the country. While Jaguar and Land Rover will be produced within China, Tata motors will not enter due to the difficulties experienced by firms from the outside. Not to mention, Tata admits that the Chinese auto market is more advanced than India’s, (in terms of manufacturing), and that Tata sources parts from China (e.g. automatic transmissions).
Despite India’s worries about China, Tata views China as a potential ally where a sustainable relationship could be created.
On retirement:
Tata hopes in his retirement to work on child and pregnant mother nutrition in order to improve the physical health of India’s future population.
Check out the full interview at:
Firangi on India - भारत पर विदेशी दृष्टिकोण 