Brand TATA going strong in the year 2008

Few days back we had started a poll on Dyutita, as to which brand was considered the BEST INDIAN BRAND. It was not much of a surprise that TATA has a great goodwill amongst the young India mesmerized by Ambanis and Murthys. Its rightly said that reputation is something that takes ages to build. The Tata Group is India's largest conglomerate company, with revenues in 2006-07 of Rs. 129,994 Crore (US $28.8 billion), the equivalent of about 3.2% of India's GDP, and a market capitalisation of US $73.6 billion as on December 13, 2007.Out of 98 operating companies in seven business sectors, 27 are publicly listed enterprises. The Tata Group has operations in more than 85 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 80 nations. Tata Group's aim is to improve the quality of life of the communities it serves. The Tata family of companies shares a set of five core values: integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility.

Brand TATA was surely in news through out 2007. Starting with the Fiat TATA JV, then VSNL was rechristened as TATA communications. TCS moved up three positions from 13th to be ranked as 10th biggest technology vendor in the world in 2007. TCS was also the least affected on the Indian IT giants by the rupee appreciation. Finally the TATA - Corus deal was rated as the best Asian deal in 2007 by CFO Asia. So where is brand TATA headed in 2008? To start with Tata steel and SAIL formed a JV coal mining. These are some serious signs of consolidation to come in future in the Indian steel industry. Tata Motors will be taking on M&M in the Commercial Vehicle segment with a range of new product launches in 2008.

The 20-acre Special Economic Zone being developed by the IT behemoth TCS in Gandhinagar district will start functioning in 2008 and emerge as a showcase for information technology destination in India. This facility would be 2,200-seater and work for applications development, software, Information Technology and IT-enabled Services (ITeS).

Ford Motor Co. named Tata Motors the top bidder for its Jaguar and Land Rover brands and has entered into "focused negotiations at a more detailed level," meaning Tata was named preferred bidder for the storied British automakers. Tata plans to unveil its ultracheap $2,500 [ 1 lakh ]car next week at an auto show in New Delhi. Company Chairman Ratan Tata said in a recent interview that acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover would help bring global visibility to his group — a sprawling conglomerate that makes everything from automobiles to steel and software, and a name that until recently was little-known outside India. [Humility personified]