Biotechnology is on the ‘radar screen’ of the Tata group and part of the proceeds of the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) IPO could go into it, said Tata Sons Director, Dr JJ Irani, speaking to presspersons at Bangalore on Wednesday. However, there are no specific plans for the sector, he said. The Tata group, which is marking the centenary of three events this year - the death of Jamshedji Tata, and the births of Mr Naval and JRD Tata - is also planning a ‘gift to the nation’ sometime during the year.

The gift would be ‘something huge’ - a project ‘in crores and not in single digits’ was all that Dr Irani would share. "We are evaluating two or three subjects and talking to experts to choose one of them", he said. "The gift will help the nation improve upon resources - either natural or human," he said, adding that the company had already launched projects on similar lines, including the cancer hospital in Mumbai or the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA).

The group will continue to invest heavily in software and telecom (where an investment of Rs 20,000 crore will be made over the next three to four years), motors and steel, he added. Besides these, the proceeds of the IPO, pegged between Rs 5000 crore and Rs 6000 crore will go to various group companies in proportion of the shares they are offering for sale, he said. Aviation was not being seen as an investment opportunity at present, said Dr Irani, who called it a ‘sad chapter’ for the group, both in terms of airports and airlines.

The Rs 1 lakh car from Tata Motors was on the drawing boards and was very much on the cards, he said. "Nobody believed that a wholly, indigenously designed car was possible, but Indica is now on the roads.’’ Elaborating upon the Tata philosophy of making money but reinvesting it in the community which created it, Dr Irani said that Tata Steel, alone put in around Rs 40 crore in community welfare projects (separate from employee welfare) in both, good years as well as bad. So far, the group has been shy of talking about these projects, and the present brand building exercise is aimed at "getting more and more of the younger generation to be involved with and know about the group," Dr Irani said.

B’lore may play host to centenary celebrations
Bangalore will have the privilege of kicking off the year long centenary celebrations of the Tata group. The event will be inaugurated by President APJ Abdul Kalam, at IISc, the institute founded by Jamshedji Tata. ‘‘It was the President’s idea that we do it in Bangalore, at IISc,’’ admitted Dr Irani. Jamshedji Tata thought of the institute (earlier known as Tata Institute of Sciences) as his ‘third son’, said Dr Irani. In his will, he had left a third of his wealth, each to his two sons JRD and Naval Tata, and a third to the institute.