Jamsetji N Tata is the founder of the Tata Group. Born in a family of Parsi priests in Navsari, Gujarat, on March 3, 1839, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata came to Mumbai (then Bombay) at the age of 14. In 1868, at age 29, he started a private trading firm with a capital of Rs 21,000. His travels in the Far East and Europe had inspired in him the desire to manufacture cotton goods. In 1877, he launched the famous Empress Mill in Nagpur. He also set up the Central Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company in 1874 and the Swadeshi Mills in 1886, both in Mumbai. He also set up the Taj Hotel in Mumbai and laid the plans for India's first steel plant.
A village called Sakchi was chosen as the site for setting up the Tata Iron and Steel Co. M/s Julian Kennedy, Sahlin and Co, of Pittsburgh, USA were appointed the construction engineers of TISCO. On January 2, 1919, Sakchi was renamed Jamshedpur.
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata's dream -- The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai -- was opened on December 16, 1903. It is said to have cost £500,000 -- or Rs 25 lakh -- then. Legend has it that J N Tata was taking a foreigner to a dinner in a hotel, but was stopped at the entrance by the doorman. The reason? Only Europeans were allowed in, not Indians. That rebuff was enough to make Jamsetji decide to build a grand hotel in India.
In 1904, three years before the site of his dream steel plant -- Sakchi -- was discovered, Jamsetji died at Bad Nauheim in Germany. His cousin R D Tata and close members of his family carried forward the work he had started.
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