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| Cyrus Mistry garlands JN Tata’s bust at Bistupur Postal Park and later tees off at Gopal Maidan in Jamshedpur with Tata Steel MD HM Nerurkar by his side on Sunday. |
The festival unique to all creeds — Founder’s Day to celebrate the birth of India’s first industrial change-agent — started on Sunday morning at Tata Steel Works main gate, Jamshedpur, with group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and new chairman Cyrus Mistry adding to the excitement.
Born on March 3, 1839, in Navsari near Surat in Gujarat, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was the first in a family of Parsee priests to try his hand at business, telling colonial India to dream of making steel.
It is this awe that draws thousands to Founder’s Day.
Excitement was palpable in galleries as Tata and Mistry, with Tata Steel MD H.M. Nerurkar arrived at the Works main gate around 9am.
It was a special moment for Mistry, attending Founder’s Day as chairman. He sat with Tata, who seemed content handing over the baton.
Around 5,000 employees, 40 departments and 25 floats displayed this year’s theme — “Towards World Class” — before Tata, Mistry, Nerurkar, Tata Steel vice-chairman B. Muthuraman, Tata Sons directors past and present J.J. Irani and Ishaat Hussain, Tata Steel CEO (Europe) Karl Ulrich Kohler, Tata Power MD Anil Sardana and LIC chairman D.K. Mehrotra.
The Founder also got floral tributes — from corporate honchos to workers alike.
Addressing citizens near JN Tata’s bust at Bistupur Postal Park, Mistry stressed on imbibing values of the Founder. “It is time to reflect on values and entrepreneurial skills of our Founder. These have been our mainstay for over 100 years,” he said.
He also flagged off Founder’s Day pageantry near Bistupur post office, which saw 25 tableaux of social and trade bodies, Rapid Action Force.
Later, talking to Tata Workers Union officials at Heritage Gallery, Mistry said: “It will take at least a year for the economy to get out of global recession.” He also ruled out hiking the volume of Tata Steel plant in Jamshedpur — 10 MT now. He wrapped up the day with sports at Gopal Maidan and a coke plant battery launch at Tata Steel works before leaving for Mumbai via Ranchi.
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