Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran on Tuesday defended the conglomerate's long-term investment strategy, saying the group will keep building what India and the world needs even when the benefits were not immediately visible.
Speaking at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in New Delhi, Chandrasekaran said semiconductor manufacturing and advanced manufacturing were critical to India's future and should not be judged solely by whether they meet targets over the next two to three years.
"There are many decisions that have been taken by various chairmen in the group which have all proved to be right in the long term," he said.
His comments come amid a growing rift between Tata Sons and its controlling shareholder, Tata Trusts, over the group's investment strategy, Chandrasekaran's own reappointment and whether the holding company should go public.
In September, the Tata Sons board reappointed Chandrasekaran for another five-year term, despite opposition from Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts. The Trusts, which own about 66 per cent of Tata Sons, later termed the decision illegal, arguing that it violated the company's Articles of Association. Tata Sons has disputed this claim.
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“Direction is certain, need is certain, ability to execute is certain,” Chandrasekaran said, referring to the group's semiconductor ambitions. “The only thing is how much you ramp up, how fast you ramp up, which technology you go to. All this is uncertain.”
“Sometimes things go wrong. Then you course-correct,” he said, adding that investments should be directed towards what India, enterprises and society need over the long term.
Chandrasekaran acknowledged that the group would need technology partners. He also cautioned against investing recklessly in advanced chip technologies without considering demand and the balance sheet.
“You can't be reckless and say that I am going to be putting a two-nanometre chip. It's just not going to work,” he said. According to Tata Sons’ disclosures, Tata Electronics’ revenue nearly doubled to ₹1.31 trillion in FY26, but its net loss widened to ₹1,611 crore from ₹70 crore a year earlier. Its two major semiconductor projects are yet to begin production. The chip fabrication plant in Dholera, Gujarat, being built with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, is expected to begin commercial operations in mid-2028, while the assembly and testing facility in Assam is slated to start production in December.
Resilience as a business priority
Chandrasekaran said businesses should build resilience into their operations instead of focusing solely on efficiency in an unpredictable environment. He argued that the two were not mutually exclusive.
“In a highly unpredictable, volatile environment, optimising for efficiency is definitely not the right thing,” he said. “I believe that if you design for resilience in an unpredictable environment, actually you are optimising for efficiency.”
He cited shortages of magnets that can disrupt vehicle production and the cyberattack that affected Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), saying the company had almost lost six weeks of production because of the incident.
The group had also faced an air crash and supply-chain disruptions, he said, but still expected to deliver double-digit growth, with margins holding up. He did not specify the period or provide financial projections to quantify the outlook.
Chandrasekaran said he had asked companies across the group to define resilience for their own businesses rather than adopt a single framework.
Geopolitical risks and technology
Chandrasekaran said technology posed near-term risks, including misuse by bad actors and job restructuring, but expected it to have a far-reaching impact over the medium to long term.
He also expressed concern over the growing number of conflicts around the world, warning that wars were opening on multiple fronts without any being resolved.
"If you look at a group like ours, which is about 160 years old, we have seen two world wars, pandemics, high borrowing levels and many other things, and we have survived. So it's not the first time that something as hard as this is happening. But the primary difference is that all of it is happening at the same time. Tackling all of it at the same time is the unique thing now," he said.