When Tata, India's oldest and largest conglomerate, bought the fabled Jaguar auto brand last year, the country celebrated the gleaming trophy as affirmation of its new role as a global superpower. What a difference a year makes. Today, a string of blows has left the Tata group drowning in condolence calls, not international applause. Many see Tata's woes as especially alarming because, as has been the case for over a century, where Tata goes, India goes. “There's a sense of foreboding and fear,” said Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian and author of “India after Gandhi.” “If it happens to the Tatas, it means something much more than if it was happening to other companies.” The past year, which has seen the stock price of Tata's listed companies fall nearly 60 percent, has been perhaps the most difficult in the group's history. Tata faces a global meltdown that is eating into some of its most high-profile brands, terrorism that scarred its landmark hotel, and political demonstrations that have crippled business plans. Tata Motors revenues' fell more than 34 percent in the most recent quarter, its first loss in seven years. And Tata Steel reported its first drop in quarterly profits in nearly three years. In India, Tata is everywhere – tea, salt, steel, cars, chemicals, hotels, housing, telecommunications. The Tata group is a sprawling collection of nearly 100 companies that includes the country's largest automaker, the largest private steel company, and a leading outsourcing firm. The companies employ more than 350,000 people around the world. From the current chairman, Ratan Tata, to his great-grandfather, Jamsetji N. Tata, the Tata men are famously philanthropic and civic-minded. They are seen as something like national uncles: kindly, wise and dependable. Tata's purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover last March was an opportunity to strut. “The Empire Strikes Back!” was one of many headlines at the time that reveled in talk of the Indian century. Tata “got swept up in the general mood,” said Guha. “There was this arrogance that we can go buy the world.” Today, in the sobering light of the global recession, a harsh reality has set in. With car sales everywhere plummeting, the Jaguar and Land Rover brands have been a drag on Tata Motors, forcing the company to approach British authorities for a bailout and take the extraordinary step of appealing directly to the public for funds. Tata Group still makes enormous profits – $5.4 billion in 2007-08. But the value of the 28 publicly listed Tata companies has tumbled from $59.7 billion last March to $24.29 billion as of Feb. 5. That does not include Corus Group, the British steel giant Tata acquired in 2007.
