* Tata holding company ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry in October
* Group veteran Chandrasekaran reported set to take over as chair
* Chandrasekaran is boss of TCS, group's most profitable company
* Tata Sons held board meeting on Thursday afternoon


Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chief of the software services wing of India's Tata Group, was Thursday named as the new chairman of the conglomerate's holding company.
Tata Sons - the holding company of the 100-billion-dollar Tata conglomerate, which owns Jaguar Land Rover as well as many other companies - sacked chairman Cyrus Mistry in October, sparking a boardroom battle and public exchange of accusations.
Chandrasekaran, 53, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, also India's largest software services firm, was appointed to the position at a board meeting in Mumbai.
‘The board of directors of Tata Sons, at its meeting today, appointed Mr Chandrasekaran as executive chairman. This is as per the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee. Mr Chandrasekaran shall take charge from February 21, 2017,’ an official statement said.
Company patriarch Ratan Tata, had taken over as interim chairman of Tata Sons following 48-year-old Mistry's ouster. Tata, 79, had headed the group for 21 years before handing over the reins over to Mistry in 2012.
Tata Sons later set up a selection panel tasked with choosing the new chairman within four months.
The following weeks saw a power tussle during which Mistry was removed from the boards of several group companies at shareholder meetings. He has contested his sacking as Tata Sons chief in the National Company Law Tribunal, which deals with corporate grievances.
Mistry flagged lack of corporate governance in the group, believing his ouster had to do with his moves to shed some of the group's unprofitable businesses. Ratan Tata accused Mistry of disregarding the ethos of Tata and of personal animosity towards him.
Tata officials said Chandrasekaran emerged a front-runner as the group wanted a longtime Tata executive to take over during one of the most challenging times in the company's history.
Chandrasekaran who joined Tata in 1987 and has been TCS chief since 2009, is also the first non-Parsee chairman at Tata Sons. India's top industrial group was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, from the minority Parsee community, that traces its roots to Iran.
‘Chandrasekaran has demonstrated exemplary leadership as the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Consultancy Services ... We believe he will now inspire the entire Tata group to realize its potential acting as leaders in their respective businesses,’ the statement said.
The 148-year-old Tata group has more than 100 companies spread across six continents. In 2015-16, the revenue of Tata companies was 103 billion dollars. They employed more than 600,000 people.