Former IAS officer to write Ratan Tata's authorised biography

A former IAS officer, who wrote a series of books on the birds, official visits and other nudgets of Rashtrapati Bhavan, will now turn his attention to tell the life story one of the most successful businessmen in the country Ratan Tata with inputs from people ranging from Henry Kissinger to Karuna, a janitor in a hospital Karuna.

Dr Thomas Mathew, a 1983-batch officer who was Additional Secretary to Pranab Mukherjee when he was President, will pen the authorised biography of the Tata Son's Chairman Emeritus and is likely to hit the stands in November this year.

Harper Collins on Friday announced that it has bagged the global rights for 'Ratan N Tata: An Authorised Biography'. It will tell the story of Tata, who overcame "extraordinary travails and whose compassion took priority over business compulsions, uniquely achieving both goals" as well as "encapsulates the narrative of India’s growing ambitions on the world stage and rising clout in the last few decades", the publisher said.

Mathew will be drawing stories about Tata from the likes of former US Secretary of State Kissinger to Karuna, the janitor at GT Hospital in Mumbai. "What emerges is the story of a private individual, a great industrialist and a remarkable leader who steadfastly believes, above all, in the values that he inherited, and who spent his life in the service of his fellow humans and a fledgling nation," the publisher said.

The book promises to provide a comprehensive account of Tata’s life, which includes "unknown details and fascinating stories" from his formative years, the time he spent in America as a student, his return to India and his early tenure with the Tata Group as well as his "inspiring and engaging" business strategies, leadership vision and personal integrity that have shaped the Group.

Mathew said he had the opportunity to closely observe and interact with the Indian corporate ecosystem over the last four decades and in the later years with Tata and the Tata Group, in particular.

"So, when I got the opportunity to write the story of the man whose name instantly evokes intense admiration, bordering on adulation, among people across the world, I had no doubt that it would be far and away an exciting yet daunting task. As part of the research, I benefited from unprecedented access to the records of the conglomerate, the trusts that control it as well as Tata’s personal documents, letters and journals," he said.

"I also enjoyed virtually unfettered access to Tata himself, who narrated his life story in a tell-all fashion. The research also took me across continents following Tata’s journey, interviewing those who were involved in it, those who influenced him and those whose lives he had touched," he said.

HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan said they cannot wait to publish the book in multiple formats and languages, across geographies and that its publication would be a "global publishing event of significance".

HarperCollins India Executive Publisher Udayan Mitra said the biography explores the professional and private life of Tata, a man everyone respects but would not fully know if it were not for this book.

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