India, Oct. 9 -- On 9 October 2024, India Inc. stopped for a moment. From factory floors in Jamshedpur to boardrooms in Mumbai and campuses across the world, tributes poured in for Ratan Naval Tata, who died at 86. A year later, the void remains-that of a man who built not just India's most reputed conglomerate, but belief in India Inc. globally.

Born on 28 December 1937 into one of India's most storied industrial families, Ratan Tata was not handed power-he had to earn it.

The eldest son of Naval Tata and Sonoo Commissariat, Ratan Tata was raised by his grandmother, Lady Navajbai Tata, in Mumbai. Educated at Cornell University in architecture and later at Harvard Business School, he was-by most accounts-reserved and thoughtful rather t...