'JRD Tata was a visionary who established civil aviation in India'.
"I mentioned to sir (Ratan Tata) that the son of a fellow army officer was handicapped below the waist and needed a job," he told PTI from Pune where he now lives. "Vijay Bisht, son of my then colleague in M&G area HQ Lt Col B S Bisht, had sustained severe leg injuries after falling from a horse and I came to know he was looking for a job," he added. Tata said the needful would be done. And it was.
Tata group has been a constant in India's sporting landscape and the conglomerate's involvement only grew under Ratan Tata.
'When the bombing happened in the Taj Mahal hotel in 2008, that was a very sad moment, but he really took care of the people, took care of everybody and that was when you saw some of his best moments.' 'There are some things which we will never forget. That is when the best of a person comes out.'
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'It is notable how humble he was and didn't want anything different just because he was a Tata.'
To me he always symbolised the sincere, confident, face of a Bharat whose rise is unstoppable. Ratan Tata was a Rishi who was unquestioningly trusted by people who never saw him and never met him, asserts Tarun Vijay, the former BJP MP.
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Arun Maira who worked for 25 years with the Tata Group, remembers his early years with Ratan Tata.
'I think Ratan felt he had to do everything that he could to retain control of the company started by his forefathers, because that was the first priority and nothing else mattered compared to that.'
'Ratan had the quality that JRD and Russi Mody had -- they could walk with kings and never lose the common touch.'
Mr Tata said a letter had arrived in his office from a young woman who had applied for the graduate engineering programme of TELCO Pune and been turned down. 'I wouldn't interfere with your selection process, Maira,' he said. 'However, I am calling you because this lady says that her rejection letter says that though she is very well qualified for the programme, TELCO Pune cannot select her because she is a woman.' 'Why are you discriminating against women?' he asked. A must read excerpt from Arun Maira's The Learning Factory: How The Leaders Of Tata Became Nation Builders.
'And he was really trying just to do the best by the shareholders, and by the laws of India.'
'It was unfair to expect him to continue to keep on supplying vaccines without being given a firm commitment or a financial grant of any sort.'
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has to deal with 3 powerful enemies: the media, the political establishment, and business houses.
