MC EXCLUSIVE Consensus still eludes Neville Tata’s induction on Sir Ratan Tata Trust

Tata Group

• Neville Tata's appointment to Tata Trust delayed due to canceled board meeting.
• Trustees have yet to reach consensus on Neville Tata's induction
• Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust hold major stakes in Tata Sons

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Neville Tata’s appointment as a trustee to Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), an influential Tata Trusts entity has been further delayed after a board meeting of the trust scheduled for Saturday was cancelled, people aware of the development told Moneycontrol. 

Moneycontrol reported on January 15 that the SRTT board was scheduled to meet on Saturday to consider the appointment of Neville Tata as a trustee, among other agenda items. Board meetings of two other Tata Trust entities - Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Tata Education and Development Trust, which were also scheduled for Saturday, took place as planned, the sources added.

The cancellation of the board meeting of SRTT indicated that the trustees are yet to reach a consensus on the appointment of Neville Tata, sources added.

An email sent to Tata Trusts did not elicit a response till the time of publication.

The development comes against the backdrop of unresolved issues stemming from the last round of inductions in November, when Neville Tata and Bhaskar Bhat, a Tata group veteran who led Titan, were both cleared by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust for appointment, but the parallel move at the Sir Ratan Tata Trust did not go through. At the time, the two trusts were meant to consider a common slate of nominees, including Neville Tata for a three-year term and Bhat as a professional trustee.

While the Sir Dorabji Trust proceeded with those appointments on November 11, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust did not take up the proposals at its meeting that day after objections were reportedly raised by trustee Venu Srinivasan over how the items had been placed before the board.

As a result, neither Neville Tata nor Bhaskar Bhat was inducted into the Sir Ratan Tata Trust in that round. Srinivasan’s objections were first reported by Mint on November 13.

The development is notable because Noel Tata and Srinivasan had previously been viewed as broadly aligned during the internal disagreements that preceded the exit of long-time trustee Mehli Mistry.

The ouster of Mistry in October followed a period of disagreements between the trustees. Mistry, supported by trustees Darius Khambata, Jehangir H. C. Jehangir and Pramit Jhaveri, had raised concerns over how information was being shared within the Trusts, according to people aware of those exchanges. Those concerns were discussed in Trust meetings held in September and earlier.

Vijay Singh, one of the trustees, was not renominated to the Tata Sons board after these four trustees opposed his continuation at a meeting of the trustees on September 11.

Srinivasan was reappointed to the Trusts at the November 11 meeting, initially for a life term, which was later reduced to three years in line with Maharashtra government rules. That was the same meeting at which Neville Tata was inducted into the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Against this backdrop, Srinivasan’s position on Neville Tata’s induction into the Sir Ratan Tata Trust has led some insiders to observe that earlier alignments within the Trusts may now be shifting, though it remains unclear how significant that change will prove.

The Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust together hold about two-thirds of Tata Sons, making trustee appointments at these entities critical to the governance of the $350-billion Tata Group.