Ratan Tata ’59, B. Arch. ’62, a former Cornell trustee and the University’s most generous international donor, passed away on Wednesday at 86. He was the former chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Group and gifted the University $50 million in 2008.
Tata’s passing was announced in a statement on X by the Tata Group. Tata passed away at the Breach Candy Hospital in South Mumbai, India. The statement did not specify the cause of death.
Tata initially attended Cornell to pursue engineering before pivoting to architecture. While at Cornell, he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.
Tata joined the Tata Group, which was founded by his great-grandfather, in 1961, doing manual labor on the steel workshop floor. 30 years later, he became chairman, the role he served until his resignation in 2012. Under Tata’s leadership, the Tata Group’s profits multiplied 50 times, with the conglomerate’s revenue exceeding $100 billion by the time he retired.
Tata was also a philanthropist. He was the chairman of Tata Trusts — a philanthropic organization rooted in humanitarianism — from 2012 until his passing. Tata Trusts’ wide scope of work includes healthcare, social justice and disaster relief.
Part of Tata’s $50 million donation to Cornell established the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, a research initiative that seeks to reduce poverty through innovation in food systems and nutrition. It also endowed the Tata Scholarship for Students from India, which supports about 20 Cornellians who attended secondary school in India and qualify for need-based financial aid.
An additional $50 million gifted by Tata Consultancy Services in 2017 contributed to the Tata Innovation Center on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York City. Tata’s generosity was formally recognized in 2012, when he was named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year.
Tata Group has also provided large donations to other top universities across the U.S., including Harvard University; the University of California, San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University.
Interim President Michael Kotlikoff praised Tata for his lasting contributions.
“Ratan Tata has left an extraordinary legacy in India, across the world and at Cornell, which he cared about deeply,” Kotlikoff said. “His generosity and concern for others enabled research and scholarship that improved the education and health of millions of people in India and beyond, and extended Cornell’s global impact.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on X that Tata had an “unwavering commitment to making our society better.”
