As part of evolving strategies for future growth areas, the Rs 48,000-crore Tata Group has added a new layer to its management structure by creating a group corporate centre under the chairmanship of Ratan Tata. The GCC will report to Tata Sons. The mandate of the GCC will be to guide the future group strategy and direction, in close coordination with the group executive office. The other members of the GCC include J J Irani, the former managing director of Tata Steel and chairman, Tata Teleservices, R K Krishna Kumar, the Tata Tea vice-chairman and managing director, Indian Hotels Company Ltd and N A Soonawala. Krishnakumar was recently inducted into Tata Sons as executive director. The existing group executive office members, which will be part of the GCC, includes R.Gopalkrishnan, Ishaat Hussain and Kishore Chaukar.  After the present exercise, the group will have three layers at the top-Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, GCC and group executive office. The group executive office will be viewed as the executive arm of the GCC. The executive directors in the group executive office, as per the Tata policy on serving executives, are below the age of 65. Other members of the GCC, however need not be constrained in this respect. Explaining the rationale, Bombay House sources said this is why senior Tata persons who have retired from executive positions, such as Soonawala and J J Irani, who have important contributions to make, have been brought into the corporate centre.