Ups and downs in life are very important to keep us going, because a straight line even in an ECG means we are not alive.
I have been constantly telling people to encourage people, to question the unquestioned and not to be ashamed to bring up new ideas, new processes to get things done.
There are many things that, if I have to relive, maybe I will do it another way. But I would not like to look back and think what I have not been able to.
Apart from values and ethics which I have tried to live by, the legacy I would like to leave behind is a very simple one – that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I could be.
I have always been very confident and very upbeat about the future potential of India. I think it is a great country with great potential.
I may have hurt some people along the way, but I would like to be seen as somebody who has done his best to do the right thing for any situation and not compromised.
Power and wealth are not two of my main stakes.
The day I am not able to fly will be a sad day for me.
I followed someone who had very large shoes. He had very large shoes. Mr. J. R. D. Tata. He was a legend in the Indian business community. He had been at the helm of the Tata organization for 50 years. You were almost starting to think he was going to be there forever.
Young entrepreneurs will make a difference in the Indian ecosystem.
I would say that one of the things I wish I could do differently would be to be more outgoing.
IT and the entire communications business clearly have the greatest potential for growth. But if you’re talking about sheer size, the steel and auto industries will remain at the top.
The strong live and the weak die. There is some bloodshed, and out of it emerges a much leaner industry, which tends to survive.
I have two or three cars that I like, but today, Ferrari would be the best car I have driven in terms of being an impressive car.
India has probably lost its position to China as the world’s workshop. At the same time it has the power to be ahead of China when it comes to knowledge. Not that the Chinese are far behind. They will get there. But our challenge is to invest sufficiently in education.
What I would like to do is to leave behind a sustainable entity of a set of companies that operate in an exemplary manner in terms of ethics, values and continue what our ancestors left behind.
When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something.
I will certainly not join politics. I would like to be remembered as a clean businessman who has not partaken in any twists and turns beneath the surface, and one who has been reasonably successful.
Britain needs a real push. It needs nationalism. The sort of spirit that comes during a war. It needs people really to want to see the UK sitting again, maybe not as a colonial power, but as an economic power.
We’re responsible for the fortunes of the company but this is a bone-dry situation in terms of access to credit. Nobody can operate on that basis unless you have large cash balances, which we don’t. My concern is that the government doesn’t appear to care about manufacturing.