Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust Annual Report 2007 - 2008 June 12, 2008 MESSAGE The year 2007-08 saw an amalgamation of the grant initiatives of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, both working towards achieving unified goals. The year also marked the first year of operations under the Strategic Plan 2011, which provides the framework for the Trusts’ grant making operations over the next five year period. Consequently, the combined disbursals of the Trusts during the year touched Rs. 1.11 billion (US $ 27.70 million). Notably, disbursals have been rising appreciably every year, vindicating the Group’s vision of sharing its wealth amidst the disadvantaged sections within India. Disbursals within the Rural Livelihoods & Communities (RLC) portfolio have historically constituted a major proportion vis-à-vis disbursals across other thematic areas. The year under review was no exception, with over 60% of the total grant outlay falling within this portfolio. The Trusts have focused on ‘inclusiveness in growth’ and ‘regaining agricultural relevance’ across grant making efforts within the RLC thematic area, in an attempt to align their goals and ideals with the tenets and national approach of the eleventh Five Year Plan of the nation. The Trusts continued their commitment towards the establishment of the Rs. 2.50 billion cancer hospital in Kolkata, specializing in the detection and treatment of cancer, through an endowment grant of Rs. 250 million, towards building up the corpus of the Tata Medical Centre Trust, responsible for this project. With Rs. 450 million already having being invested by the Trusts towards the Hospital during 2005-06 and 2006-07, their total commitment to date is to the tune of Rs. 700 million (US $ 17.50 million). Further, the commencement of the Higher Education Cell in Bangalore marked the Trusts’ concerted efforts within the field of Higher Education. I wish to commend the Trusts’ team and its large bank of external experts for their unstinting efforts in adding value to contemporary grant making, and overseeing the translation of these grants into the enhancement of the quality of life of the communities they touch. SIR RATAN TATA TRUST & NAVAJBAI RATAN TATA TRUST • ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008 Ratan N. Tata Chairperson I Vision The Trusts’s Vision Sir Ratan Tata’s thoughts, in 1913, on the manner in which the Trust’s funds could be used: “… for the advancement of Education, Learning and Industry in all its branches, including education in economy, sanitary services and art, or for the relief of human suffering or for other works of public utility…. “To engage qualifi ed and competent persons to investigate into matters that pertain to the social, economic or political welfare of the Indian community, the object being to design schemes of a practical nature calculated to promote the welfare of the said community, care being taken that such work is not undertaken from the stereotyped point of view but from the point of view of fresh light that is thrown from day to day by the advance of science and philosophy on problems of human well-being… Further, he also directed that: “No experiment and no venture should be aided or undertaken unless the scheme thereof is carefully prepared…” “No institution or organisation should be Sir Ratan and Lady Navajbai Tata. aided of which the accounts are not subject to periodic audits and are not regularly issued and which would not be open to inspection SIR RATAN TATA TRUST & NAVAJBAI RATAN TATA TRUST • ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008 and examination… The Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, formed in 1974, embodies a similar vision. I Sir Ratan Tata Trust Board of Trustees Mr. Ratan N. Tata (Chairperson) Mr. H. N. Sethna Mr. N. A. Soonawala Mr. J. N. Tata Mr. K. B. Dadiseth Mr. R. K. Krishna Kumar Ms. S. K. Bharucha Secretary & Chief Accountant Mr. Hoshang D. Malesra Programmes Manager Mr. Arun Pandhi Statutory Auditors Mr. Dilip J. Thakkar M/s Jayantilal Thakkar & Co. Chartered Accountants Internal Auditors M/s Deloitte Haskins & Sells Chartered Accountants Solicitor s Mr. Jehangir N. Mistry, Partner M/s Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe Our Bankers American Express Bank, Fort, Mumbai State Bank of India, Main, Mumbai ICICI Bank, Fort, Mumbai Standard Chartered Bank, Fort, Mumbai Bank of Baroda, Fort, Mumbai HDFC Bank, Fort, Mumbai Barclays Bank PLC, Mumbai Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust Board of Trustees Mr. Ratan N. Tata (Chairperson) Mr. N. A. Soonawala Ms. S. N. Tata Mr. H.D. Malesra SIR RATAN TATA TRUST & NAVAJBAI RATAN TATA TRUST • ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008 Mr. J. N. Mistry Statutory Auditors Mr. Dilip J. Thakkar M/s Jayantilal Thakkar & Co. Chartered Accountants Solicitor s Mr. Jehangir N. Mistry, Partner M/s Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe Our Bankers American Express Bank, Fort, Mumbai Standard Chartered Bank, Fort, Mumbai Barclays Bank PLC, Mumbai The Zoroastrian Co-operative Bank Ltd. II Refl ections Of Days Gone By... Sir Ratan Tata was a prolifi c traveler and it was on one such trip to Japan and China, during the spring of 1916, that he contracted an illness which ultimately proved fatal. Upon the advice of the doctors in Bombay, Sir Ratan Tata, along with Lady Ratan Tata and a few trusted staff, left for England in October 1916, on what was to be an eventful, but fi nal journey of Sir Ratan Tata. The journey, in the backdrop of the First World War, makes an interesting story in itself, as recounted by Dr. Jivraj N. Mehta, who accompanied the ailing Sir Ratan Tata.1 While most other men of his age would have panicked under a similar situation, Dr. Jivraj displayed nerves of steel and single-handedly guided his fellow passengers, including Sir Ratan, to safety whilst risking his own life. “In the fi rst week of November – practically the day before Diwali that year – we sailed by the SS Arabia with Sir Ratan Tata, Lady Tata, his secretary, another medical colleague, a nurse and his bearer. Shortly after we had passed through the Suez Canal and left Port Said on 11th November 1916, at about 10 o’clock in the morning, our ship was torpedoed by a German submarine. At the time the ship was torpedoed, the waters of the Mediterranean Sea were like a sheet of glass, absolutely without a ripple. On the ship, we used to parade everyday to get accustomed to what was to be done, in case the ship was torpedoed. If any such thing happened, we were expected to go up on the deck where the life-boats were kept for the respective group of passengers. We were thus all supposed to go up and not down when the ship was torpedoed. At that particular time, I was the only member of our party SIR RATAN TATA TRUST & NAVAJBAI RATAN TATA TRUST • ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008 on the deck. So against instructions, I went down to fetch my party up. By the time we came up, we found that the life-boat meant for us had been taken away by the sailors and other passengers, and we were left stranded on the deck. With the assistance of the ship’s surgeon, who had seen us 1 Excerpted from oral history recorded by Dr. Jivraj N. Mehta, Archives – Sir & Lady Ratan Tata, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi III Reflections stranded, a life-boat that was already on the water and whose connecting ropes were about to be severed from the ship, was ordered to await our going down the ropes into the life-boat and so all of us had to go down dangling in the air, with the help of the connecting ropes. First went sliding down Lady Tata, then the nurse, then Sir Ratan Tata and so on, the others climbed down the ropes one by one, myself being the last to go down the ropes. As we slid down the ropes which were thick and rough – not being accustomed to this practice – the skin in our hands suffered badly and even peeled off in some places and had to be attended to later, when the life-boat reached Malta. As there were very few sailors left on our life-boat, I took charge of one of the oars. The idea of my helping with the oar was that the life-boat should be pulled away as far as possible from the ship which had begun sinking, with the waters rushing into it from the hole made in its side, by the bursting of the torpedo. Fortunately, the torpedo had hit the side of the ship where coal bunkers used to be, with the result that the heavy pieces of coal partially obstructed the flow of water into the ship. Consequently, the ship sank slowly and we were able to clear away from it, otherwise there was the fear of the life-boat being sucked into the ship if it had sunk fast. SIR RATAN TATA TRUST & NAVAJBAI RATAN TATA TRUST • ANNUAL REPORT 2007-2008 Torpedoed P&O liner SS Arabia sinking in the Mediterranean Sea after being hit by a German U-Boat. (Picture courtesy website http://www.firstworldwar.com) IV Reflections All people on the ship were saved, except for a couple of the crew who were killed in the engine room where the tornado had ultimately penetrated. The broadcasting system of the ship was also damaged or destroyed as the ship rocked considerably with the impact of the torpedo. Rockets were thereafter sent up by the Captain to attract the attention of the ships sailing not very far away.