Harvard Business School:

India’s Tata donates $ 50 m

India’s Tata Group has given $ 50 m (Sterling Pound 31.38 m) to the Harvard Business School, the biggest foreign donation in the US school’s 102-year history, a BBC release said.

In Sri Lanka, India’s Tata Group has partnerships with Sunshine Holdings and Watawala Plantations, one of the leading plantations companies in the country. Sunshine Holdings own the popular tea brands, Zesta and Watawala Kahata, which are marketed locally and globally by Watawala Plantations.

According to the release, the gift will fund a new academic and residential building - Tata Hall - in Boston for participants of executive education programs, the school said. Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata is a graduate of Harvard, one of America’s most prestigious universities.

Its Indian-born dean, Nitin Nohria, thanked him for a “historic gift”.

Harvard says more than 9,000 business leaders from around the world are currently enrolled in its advanced management program, first launched in 1945.

The multinational Tata Group has 98 companies in industries ranging from IT services to power generation, and tea production to steel and motor cars.

With annual sales of $71b (Sterling Pound 46b), Tata is one of India’s largest businesses.

After taking over as Chairman in 1991, Ratan Tata revamped the operations of Tata Steel and made it one of the lowest-cost producers in the world.

He also launched India’s first indigenous car, Indica, which turned around Tata Motors’ fortunes. The group recently produced Tata Nano, hailed as the world’s cheapest car.