In a grand ceremony held on Tuesday, the Tata Group became the second Indian company to receive an award for corporate governance.

Presented by Dr. Bimal Jalan, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group of companies, received the National award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for the year 2000. Instituted by the government of India last year to promote good corporate governance, this award is sponsored by the Unit Trust of India.

Ratan Tata summed up his feelings on the occasion and the Tata Group's enterprises philosophy in a well-meaning few words. "Corporate governance has become the new corporate jargon like share-holder value. Corporate governance is really a state of mind. It is embodied in the feelings and traditions of the Tata group. JRD Tata's name has been mentioned several times today and the group owes a great deal of this tradition to him. He often referred to the manager's role as one of trusteeship," he said.

The Tata Iron and Steel Company was the unanimous choice for the National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance for the year 2000. The company was assessed on a set of as many as 11 criteria. The Tata Group is the second company to receive this award after the Bangalore based company Infosys.

Nominations for the award were invited from a wide cross-section of the financial community. The panel of judges comprising retired chief justice M N Venkatachaliah, and prominent industrialists Narayana Murthy and Keshub Mahindra.

According to Ratan Tata, "Corporate governance is today, one of the attributes of a good corporate citizen. It is part of the management framework, but it does not replace the tradition ingrained into your bones."

Later in the evening, the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) honoured Ratan Tata with the IMC Diamond Jubilee Endowment Trust's Outstanding Businessman of the Year Award for 2000-2001. The award was given for his outstanding contribution towards enhancing the image of the business community. This award was presented to him by C Rangarajan, governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Previous awardees of IMC"s prestigious Eminent Businessman of the Year award include Ramakrishna Bajaj, H T Parekh, S P Godrej and JRD Tata. 

With a turnover in excess of Rs.36,000 crore, the Tata Group has a long tradition of giving back more to society than what it receives. Nearly 65 per cent of the equity of Tata Sons, the group's holding company, is held by public charitable trusts.

The trusts, along with Tata Companies, spend over Rs. 100 crore every year on social causes such as education, community welfare and environmental protection.