- Lived:
- 3 March 1839, Navsari (Gujarat) → Bombay (Mumbai), with working years in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Lancashire and Nagpur; died 19 May 1904 at Bad Nauheim, Germany
- Field:
- industry — cotton first, then steel, hydro-electric power, scientific education and hospitality; founder of the house of Tata
- The Big Idea:
- A colonized country did not have to wait for its rulers to industrialize it. India could build its own steel, its own electricity, its own research university and its own grand hotel — and a plan made carefully enough can outlive the planner.
- In their words:
- "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick-growing variety… Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks." (letter to his son Dorab, 1902, describing a city that did not yet exist)
- If you remember one thing:
- He died with three of his four great dreams — the steel plant, the power scheme, the research institute — still unbuilt; his plans were so exact that his heirs built every one of them.