By Naval Tata

• Not being a minister, or an aspirant to that position, I would not like to preach from the pulpit. But this I will say: There is no shortcut to prosperity; it has to be achieved the hard way. Maintenance of discipline, whether at home, in school, the factory or the farm, is a basic requirement.
• The entrepreneur, above everything else, is keen to have the freedom to function unhindered. It does not matter what political ideology influences the administration… so long as it is not directed towards the annihilation of the entrepreneur.
• Once denounced for exploiting and oppressing the worker, modern capitalism, having gone through a process of evolution, is now able to offer the benefits that were once claimed for socialism.
• Capital formation and maximisation of production are the cardinal needs which alone can save us from distributing poverty instead of wealth.
• Despite the progress of science and technology in recent years, there are more millions living in misery than ever... In the face of such grim facts, it is surprising to find people talk glibly about progress and upward trends.

On Naval Tata
Naval was a hard worker, he liked work. He had very exceptional qualities of the kind required to deal with people. He was always prepared to listen. Naval was a fighter. When he had a belief in something, he strongly defended it and strongly fought for it. He was a good human being. He felt for others. He was always ready to respond to requests for help and advice. He had a modern mind and was always responsive to new things that happened.
— JRD Tata

Naval Tata was a truly humane and kind person, a man of peace. That's how people remember him, as they do his spirit of conciliation, his generosity and truthfulness in thoughts and action.
— Simone Tata, Naval Tata's wife and currently the chairman of Trent and the Ratan Tata Institute.

I will always remember Naval, not just as a friend but also as a gentleman who, even after becoming a member of one of the richest families in India, never forgot what it meant to be of modest means.
— B. G. Deshmukh, former municipal commissioner of Mumbai.

Naval was a unique personality, farsighted and innovative in his thinking. The views he expressed on the employment situation in India and the need to introduce automation are as relevant today as they were in the 1970s.
- Ram Tarneja, former managing director of Bennett, Coleman & Company

[Naval Tata's] approach to everything was developmental in nature. He never curbed anyone's ideas or creativity. He was very liberal in outlook and far from calculative, traits which made him a loveable human being and an excellent leader.
— I. P. Anand, former senior executive director of the K. C. Thapar group and currently a member of the International Labour Organisation's governing body.

His was the first insistent voice in the ILO to urge that effective social policy cannot be divorced from a courageous approach to the immediate urgency of the pressure of the population. He was among the first to urge us to embark on an active programme of management development. Indulgent towards human frailty, he has been tolerant of diversity of outlook and divergences of view and interests always, tolerant of cant, evil or measures never.... These are the qualities which have left their impress on Indian industry and which have given him his distinctive stature in the ILO.
— Wilfred Jenks, director-general of ILO

Uploaded on August 30, 2004