The Tata Group, founded in 1868, is a colossus at home, with annual revenues of US$29 billion, the equivalent of 3.2 percent of India's GDP, and is the biggest private employer, with 289,500 people on its payroll.
On Thursday it was named the world's third most accountable and transparent company by Britain's One World Trust, an independent research group. General Electric and GlaxoSmithKline were rated numbers one and two.
The Tata Group's founder, Jamsetji Tata, was a strong philanthropist. He accommodated his steel workers in a model company town in eastern India and his employees worked just eight-hour days -- unheard of in that era.
"He believed the primary purpose of an industrial organization is to improve the quality of life of the community," declares the company Web site, a spirit company officials say endures to this day.
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