The Maharashtra government in a Cabinet meeting decided to propose veteran industrialist Ratan Tata's name for the Bharat Ratna award. A condolence proposal was also passed by the state Cabinet on Thursday. The development comes when leaders across the parties are reaching NCPA lawns in Mumbai where Ratan Tata's mortal remains were kept for the public to pay their last respects.
A motion of condolence was passed during the meeting, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office said. The cabinet also passed a resolution urging the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on the late industrialist. Tata has been feted with the country’s second highest civilian honour Padma Vibhushan.
The resolution said entrepreneurship is an effective way for growth of the society. The country can be taken on the path of progress and development by setting up new businesses, it said. "It also requires love for the country and honest feelings for society upliftment.
We have lost a visionary leader who was committed to the country and the society. Tata's role in the industrial sector and upliftment of the society was unparalleled. He tackled all challenges by adhering to high morals, transparent and clean business administration with discipline," it said.
Ratan Tata transformed staid group into India's largest conglomerate
Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group chairman, who transformed a staid group into India's largest and most influential conglomerate with a string of eye-catching deals, died at Mumbai Hospital at 11.30 pm on Wednesday. The iconic industrialist will be accorded a state funeral this evening.
Tata, who was chairman of the salt to software group for more than two decades, breathed his last at south Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Tata, had been in intensive care at the hospital since Monday.
Educated at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, the veteran industrialist worked on the shop floor at the family-run group after returning to India in 1962. He gained experience in several Tata Group firms before being named director in charge of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co. in 1971.
He became chairman of Tata Industries a decade later and in 1991 took over as the chairman of the Tata Group from his uncle, JRD, who had been in charge for more than half a century. Under his stewardship, the conglomerate embarked on a massive expansion drive, snapping iconic British assets including steelmaker Corus and luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.
(With agencies inputs)
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