Former Chairman of Tata Steel, Russi Mody passes away

Former Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel, Russi Mody, 96, passed away in Kolkata on Friday.

Russi Mody who joined Tata Steel in 1939 rose to the position of Director of Personnel in 1953. 

In 1970, he was appointed as Director of Operations and became Joint Managing Director in 1972.

After retiring from Tata Steel in 1993, Mody was appointed as Joint Chairman of Indian Airlines and Air India.

A Padma Bhushan awardee, Mody was upset with Ratan Tata, who, he sensed, had a hand in his ouster from Tisco (now Tata Steel) in the 1990s.  However, two appeared to have made peace during August 2007, after Mody hosted Ratan Tata at his business suite in Taj Bengal, Kolkata, according to a PTI report. 

"I have not been in charge for the last fourteen years, but I think Ratan Tata and (Tata Steel managing director) B Muthuraman have done a first-class job in terms of performance of a steel company," Mody, was quoted as saying in a biography Russi Mody: The Man Who Also Made Steel, written by Partha Mukherjee and Jyoti Sabharwal.