Many of you have been part of this journey. On behalf of the trustees, I want to thank all supporters, especially parents and alumni who trusted a new university. We established the Rakkesh Junjunwala School of Economics and Finance to honor him. He was a true champion who called us the next Harvard of India. He had an unparalleled approach to philanthropy: he gave his contribution and said, 'What you do with it is your business; I trust you.' It was refreshing. For him, Ashoka was about nation building. He even spoke to the prime minister about our institution. We are proud that the economics school is named after him; it has over 30 faculty and 40% of students are economics majors. Our first PhD graduate was from this school. Welcome to the Junjunwala family. Last year, Uday Kotak delivered the inaugural lecture. Today, it is my honor to introduce Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of the Tata Group. His journey from a Tamil Nadu farming family to leading TCS and then stabilizing and transforming the Tata Group is extraordinary. He has driven the group's pivot to sustainability, digital, and electric mobility. His book 'Digital Nation' outlines a vision for inclusive growth. Rakkesh had deep respect for Chandra. Please welcome him to deliver the second Rakkesh Junjunwala memorial lecture.
Natarajan Chandrasekaran
9:07 ↗
Thank you. It is a privilege to speak. Rakkesh was a deeply compassionate leader who lived life on his terms. I recall a Tamil couplet: one who cares for fellow beings never worries about himself. He was a great well-wisher of the Tata Group. Today I speak about AI. We are moving from a unipolar to a multipolar world with trade barriers and conflicts. But AI is the big story. It is a civilization-altering invention, like fire, electricity, or the wheel. It is emerging simultaneously everywhere, supercharged by semiconductors, cloud, quantum, robotics, and energy innovations. Unlike traditional software based on algorithms, generative AI learns like the human brain but remembers everything with perfect clarity and unlimited capacity. Today's advanced AI is in the top 1% of PhDs in every subject. It is now driving scientific discovery: last year the Nobel Prize for chemistry went to developers of an AI model for protein structures, a task that used to take a year now done in minutes. In India, AI can address our access paradox: we have doctors but not enough rural healthcare, teachers but uneven quality. My book 'Digital Nation' argued that we must use digital technology to bridge gaps, augment human capabilities, and connect the unconnected. GenAI democratizes knowledge: expertise is now at the fingertips of farmers and rural folks if trained. It bridges language barriers across 780 dialects. It simplifies interfaces. But AI must be culturally relevant, with a sovereign Indian approach. We cannot risk having our cultures processed through Western models without context. While some fear job loss, digital approach can create 30 million new 'new collar' jobs: roles where human skills are augmented by AI, like community workers becoming enhanced paramedics. This requires massive collaboration between industry and government for reskilling. India can lead a human-centered path to digital transformation for the global majority. The future belongs to those who bridge the digital and physical, technology with humanity. The future is India's to create.
Thank you, Chandra. As always, it's such a fascinating experience just hearing you. I'm pretty sure people are going away with some incredible insights. I've had the privilege of boardroom conversations with you, but this has truly been an extraordinary privilege. Maybe we can start with the Tata Group. Promeat touched on this in his introduction, and you touched on it in your speech. The value creation under your leadership has been stunning. Rakkesh was a huge believer in you; he went against the grain and went long early on. How do you manage this mind-numbing complexity of the Tata Group and yet look so calm and unflappable?
I think there's no easy answer. First, I enjoy my job. I love learning different industries and value chains. When I came to the Tata Group, I had the opportunity to look at everything with fresh eyes. I started by saying we need to simplify. We started simplifying, then synergizing adjacent businesses, then scaling. During the pandemic, we added sustainability, electric vehicles, green power. Then supply chain disruption happened, so we added supply chain. Now we are building seven new factories in semiconductors, batteries, and EVs between now and early 2027, which will employ 500,000 people in manufacturing jobs. We then added safety and speed. What started as one S has become seven S's. Teams are responding and enjoying what they do. We see a lot of opportunities.
enjoyable journey. So I don't worry about I always focus on what I can do. I don't worry too much about the outcome. That's why I am mostly calm because you're always worried about the outcome then you can never sleep.
So let me maybe push on because Chandra, you know, I hear this from I've been on boards of many companies. Um, and I hear this from leaders all the time that they're losing sleep over things that are happening, falling stock prices, lenders getting jittery, bad headlines. You had a combination of all of that when you came over and took reign over the group. I can tell you board members were losing sleep. Did you ever lose sleep?
No, I think the I think you were in the board when we took the call to shut down telecom. Yeah. I still remember we had a 50,000 crore hole. Then I went to the board and Amit was very much part of the board and Nithan was there and others were there. So I remember that meeting. So where we said either we put 50,000 and get out or we put 100,000 and stay. So I think we took some bold calls.
And then we even used to ask me many many times those days what is your debt and in informal conversation. So the first decision we took was to get fit first, fitness first, performance next. So look at only the balance sheet. Don't look at P&L if you don't have the right balance sheet. So fix the balance sheet in all companies. I think that helped and we had done all of that before the pandemic. God forbid if you had not really focused on the balance sheet before the pandemic and pandemic would have eaten us. So I think I would say we were sensible. We were very principled but there is a lot of blessing and luck. I think blessing really favors the brave and probably I would say those who are very the timing worked out. So the business and steel bought at the right time. We bought it, we integrated and then we enjoyed one home run but if you had done it two years later then would have been interrupted. So the many things that we did the timing it just worked out.
No, but I would say to me, Chandra, as a close observer of you, you do bring a sense of urgency to situations and I think that there's a big lesson in that for corporate leaders that you know what needs to get fixed yesterday should be fixed yesterday at worst should be fixed today and that ability to not let a problem really balloon and get fixed as it grows on you is something that you really bring to situations. Kudos for that.
Maybe that's a good segue to how you view the country itself and again you spoke a little bit about that in your speech. The prime minister has laid out a bold vision for a Viksit Bharat. We've put out some targets 7 trillion dollar economy. You talked about the role of digital in making that happen. It would be great for you to maybe expand on that a little bit particularly given as you opened up your speech with we live in uncertain times. What are some of the key levers we need to push as a nation to realize that vision? What are some of the structural changes India needs to make to achieve that goal?
We are in a great situation. I don't think there is any country in the world today so well placed for riding a huge trajectory of economic growth and human capital development like India, not even close. We have a young population, an aspiring population, a huge demographic advantage. We need more of everything—healthcare, education, hotels, tourism, roads, bridges, power. There is shortage and demand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created a sense of belief in every person. What we need is execution, but execution is not speed; it's removing stumbling blocks. We are on the highway but not always on the fast lane. The opportunity is clear: demand is there, talent is there, but we need capital, liquidity, infrastructure. I am absolutely bullish for a long period of growth.
So talking about enablers Chandra on human capital often I hear business leaders talk about the fact that the people exist but they aren't really trained that we need to do something to make sure they're industry worthy. So what's your perspective on that and what do we really need to do to make sure we enable this new collar of talent not just in pockets but in a wave?
It's a fascinating question and needs to be addressed in multiple dimensions. First, we have educated people but not ready for jobs; that needs to be fixed, but we can't wait. Educational systems need intervention. In TCS we used to train every engineer for six months. Industry must invest until the system improves. Skills initiatives should impart 21st-century skills—technical and collaborative. We also need to focus on research. I envision a Tata research park with 2000 PhDs working on next-generation energy and materials, linked to IITs, Ashoka, and hospitals. Modern research centers with multi-disciplinary collaboration will create intellectual property. This is a 10-year journey requiring industry, academia, and government.
I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, Promeat talked about this in his introduction. At Ashoka, we are building a research-centric institute. As a nation, we spend less than 1% of GDP on R&D, which is abysmal. We need to spend more, but also harvest what we spend through cross-sector collaboration. Chandra, we've talked about the group, the country, enablers. Let's move to the globe. You said you don't want to talk about tariffs, but I have to ask: what is your view on the trade war? Tatas are truly global, so you see this from different perspectives. What is the right long-term answer and how will this land?
The problem is not tariffs; it's the reversal of a model we've used for 60-70 years. Globalization integrated supply chains. If you change the model, the supply chain infrastructure has to change, which can't happen overnight due to talent, raw materials, sourcing. It won't go back to zero; some part will stay. Where it settles—uniformly or bilaterally—only time will tell. If you want more, there are videos on YouTube every minute.
We've got tons of questions. Let me get one last from my side, and Promeat may have a couple. Chandra, I have a 20-year-old and you have a slightly older son. Thousands of kids are watching in Ashoka campus. You talked about the new collar world. What advice would you have for kids who are about to graduate? Anxiety has gone up with AI and new technology. You painted a positive picture. What do you tell your son? What should I tell my daughter?
I painted a positive picture and truly believe it. If you think AI will take over all jobs, that's wrong. Routine jobs will be automated, but many services only humans can do. AI will help like spreadsheets helped accountants. The new collar jobs will enable lower-skilled people to perform at higher productivity. My advice: dream big. The world is full of possibility. I have a theory about a new cadre of people hired to spend and grow consumption. New forms of jobs will emerge.
