JRD: A lasting legacy

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, the second child of Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his French wife Sooni, was born in Paris on July 29, 1904.

The young JRD spent his early years in Hardelot, a beach town in France.

In 1938, upon the death of Nowroji Saklatvala, the then chairman of Tata Sons, JRD was picked to head one of India's largest industrial empire. He was then barely 34.

In 1945 he gave the founding grant to Homi Bhabha to set up the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. This institute has proved to be, in Bhabha's words, "the cradle of our atomic energy programme."

JRD Tata was among the first Indians to be drawn to the cause of population control. In 1970, he started the Family Planning Foundation jointly with the Ford Foundation, and was bestowed with the United Nations Population Award in 1992. In 1992, JRD Tata was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

JRD's passion for flying was fulfilled with the formation of the Tata Aviation Service in 1932. The first flight of Indian civil aviation took off at Drigh Road airfield in Karachi on October 15, 1932, with JRD at the controls of the Puss Moth that he flew solo to Ahmedabad and onwards to Bombay.

JRD passed away on November 29, 1993. July 29, 2004 was JRD's birth centenary.

Photograph: Tata Sons Ltd

Also see: The Tata Legacy