Jamsetji Tata birth anniversary: Incredible contributions by Tata that helped India stand on its feet

Jamsetji Tata, who is often known as the father of Indian industry in 1892 knew that a different type of ‘Tech’ was the need of the hour. With a lack of world-class ‘Tech’nical education, India’s socio-economic progress would fail.

On this visionary nation builder’s 183rd birth anniversary, let’s see how he went on to become the ‘Father of Indian Industry’, with a vision inspiring the steel and power industries in India, set the foundation for technical education, and helped the country leapfrog into the ranks of industrialised nations.

Born on March 3, Jamsetji Tata founded the Tata Group. He started out as a merchant dealing in cotton and pig iron but he is known for his notable contribution of establishing the Tata Iron and Steel Works company in Jamshedpur. He died on May 19, 1904 at the age of 65 years.

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More than just the entrepreneur, Tata was a patriot and a humanist whose ideals and vision shaped an exceptional business conglomerate. Jamsetji’s philanthropic principles were rooted in the belief that for India to climb out of poverty, its finest minds would have to be harnessed.

Charity and handouts were not his way, so he established the JN Tata Endowment in 1892, the first Tata benefaction in the field of education, and possibly the first of its kind in the world. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Founder of the Tata group, made an investment in India’s youth - and a colonised nation’s future - when he set up the JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians.

The first of the Tata family’s philanthropic initiatives, the Endowment enabled Indian students, regardless of caste or creed, to pursue higher studies outside the country. To say that the investment has paid off would be an understatement: since it was set up in 1892, the JN Tata Endowment has supported generation after generation of promising minds in the country.

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With a staggering rate of infant mortality (nearly 60 per cent of the children born would die), India’s future generations were being wiped out before they could grow into productive citizens. What Jamsetji Tata realised that women would avoid the discomfort of going to male doctors even at enormous cost to their health.

Perhaps it was for this reason that the first recruit he awarded the scholarship to was Freany Cama to study ‘Midwifery and diseases of women and children’. He then chose to ignore the majority quota reserved for Parsi women and signed an agreement to sponsor Krishnabai Kelavkar who would be trained in Dublin.

Ultimately, the Kelavkar Medical Centre set up by her would be operated until her death in 1969. Today, India’s infant mortality is at around 5 per cent of its pre-Independence peak. This would have been even harder to achieve without what the JN Tata scholarships made possible.

His hometown Jamshedpur is all set to celebrate the 183rd birth anniversary of its iconic Founder, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata on March 3.  The celebration is based on the theme ‘Life@TataSteel – Build the tomorrow you deserve’.

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• 183rd birth anniversary
• Incredible contributions
• India
• Jamsetji Tata
• birth anniversary
• stand on its feet
• visionary nation builder