Thirty-six Tata group companies including Tata Steel, Tata Engineering, Tata Consultancy Services and others like Rallis, Voltas, Indian Hotels and Titan have subscribed to the Tata Brand Equity Scheme.

Officials said that the Tata group expects to add on 8 to 12 companies on "a rolling basis" to this scheme each year, though it is currently considering only those companies where the Tatas control atleast 15 per cent of the equity capital.

The Tata empire comprises 80 companies spread across seven business sectors ranging from tea to steel to cars to chemicals. The group has, as part of its strategic focus, decided to move from generic-driven businesses to brand driven ones. Its materials, chemicals and engineering products business are currently product-driven while engineering-services, communications & IT and automotive businesses, among others, are brand driven.

Group officials said that joint ventures like Haldia Petrochem etc are not being considered, at the moment, for inclusion under the brand equity scheme and any decision on such issues can be made only after due consultations with all the partners involved.

Under the brand equity scheme, companies which directly use the Tata name contribute 0.25 per cent of net revenues subject to a maximum of five per cent of profit before tax (PBT) to the fund, while other group companies like Rallis, Voltas etc (non-Tata named companies) contribute 0.15 per cent of net revenues subject to a maximum of five per cent of PBT. Non-Tata name companies usually use the - Tata Enterprise - tag.

Inclusion under the Tata Brand Equity Business Promotion Scheme, which was launched in December 1999, is subject to two qualifiers wherein the company must be a signatory to the group's code of conduct and comply with the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). Tata group companies would reportedly be evaluated on the seven critical criteria that comprise the TBEM - leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, process management, human resource focus and business results.

Each of these criteria has a specific number of points attached and the goal for each participating company is to achieve a tally of 600 points over a period of time.