Agencies/New Delhi


Tata: denies allegations
Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has denied calling his British staff lazy after a London newspaper quoted him attacking them for heading home early on Friday afternoons.
The company issued a statement after the Times published an interview in which he described how “nobody is willing to go the extra mile” at Jaguar Land Rover or Corus, two British firms which he bought in 2008 and 2006.
“Friday, from 3.30pm, you can’t find anybody in their office,” he told the Times.
The Tata Group, a massive international conglomerate, said Ratan Tata had stressed that he was talking about management practices before he took over.
“Mr Tata has always been proud of what these companies’ present management teams have been able to do following their acquisition by Tata,” the statement issued late on Saturday said.
“The Times... seeks to present these comments as being about company managers today, even though Mr Tata makes clear in the interview that new management at Corus and Jaguar Land Rover has eliminated those practices.”
It said the article “fundamentally misrepresents” Ratan Tata, adding he never used the word “lazy” during the recorded interview, which took place two months ago.
Tata said on Friday it would axe up to 1,500 jobs at two steel-making sites in northeastern England, blaming weak demand for its products.
The Times interview made front-page news in India, with newspapers relishing the comparison between work ethics in Britain and in India, where Ratan Tata said managers stay in the office until midnight if necessary.
Local media also focused on his criticism of a 27-storey luxury house that his fellow tycoon Mukesh Ambani has built in Mumbai, where millions of people live in slums or on the street.
“It makes me wonder why someone would do that. That’s what revolutions are made of,” he said. “The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and (asking) can he make a difference.”
The report further cited him as saying: “If he is not, then it is sad because India needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways to mitigate the hardship that people have.
“We are doing so little about the disparity. We are allowing it to be there and wishing it away,” the newspaper report added.
But the Tata Group said the report was “out of context and factually incorrect.”
A Tata spokesperson said Ratan Tata’s comments on wealth were in the larger context of the growing disparity in the society and the “comments seem to have been deliberately sensationalized.”
“There have been words, individuals and statements that have not been mentioned by Mr Tata during the course of the interaction which are being attributed to him. We have already registered our protest with the concerned publication and will continue to pursue measures against the incorrect impressions being sought to be created,” the statement added.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited, however, declined to comment.
Mumbai-born Ratan Tata, 73, who is widely admired for being one of India’s most powerful industrialists, shuns the social limelight, preferring a quiet life with his pet dogs in a book-filled flat in the city.
He has propelled the group’s global expansion, but is slated to retire in December 2012 when he turns 75. His successor has not yet been decided.