A building donated by Indian company, Tata Group, and named after philanthropist Ratan Tata – who passed away earlier this month – will be constructed in Somerville College in 2025. Tata was one of the most prolific philanthropists in India but has previously faced accusations of paying off militants, withholding information from the police, and corporate mismanagement. However, all allegations were dismissed.
The Ratan Tata Building will house the Oxford-India Centre for Sustainable Development. When planning began in 2012, the centre was called the Indira Gandhi Centre after Somerville alumna and former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. In 2016, two years after Gandhi’s Congress Party fell from power, the project was renamed to the Oxford-India Centre. The building was endowed with a grant of £3 million from the Indian Government and £5.5 million from Somerville and Oxford University, with a remaining figure of around £10 million sought from donations. Somerville found their principle benefactor, Tata Group, this month.
Tata was known for his philanthropic activity. In 1984, he donated to supporting victims of anti-Sikh riots, allowing them to rebuild their lives. He also gave money to to medical research, enabling neuroscience research and stem cell therapy. His donations to higher education include gifting $50 million each to his alma maters Cornell University and Harvard University.
However, Tata was associated with the Tata Tapes scandal of 1997: Its subsidiary company Tata Tea was publicly accused of paying off militants to protect tea plantations in Assam and of obstructing justice, when they allegedly withheld from the police the whereabouts of a wanted employee. There was no conclusive proof of any wrongdoing, and no police action was taken.
Furthermore, Tata met controversy over his ousting of Cyrus Mistry – his handpicked corporate successor. The removal came after the relationship between the two men collapsed, and Mistry consequently sued Tata for corporate mismanagement. The case went to the Indian Supreme Court, which ultimately dismissed allegations against Tata in 2021.
The Tata Group has had a presence in the UK for a long time. Notably, the Group owns Tetley Tea, Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel, which has made national headlines when they cut jobs at steel plants in Port Talbot.
Somerville’s building is not the first project Oxford has worked on with the Tata Group. Its subsidiary Tata Consulting Services was contracted to administer last year’s admissions tests that experience technical errors. The English Language Admissions Test (ELAT) and Geography Admissions Test (GAT) both had to be scrapped – they’ve yet to be reinstated – and all takers of the Maths Aptitude Test (MAT) were given the chance to re-sit.Cherwell has contacted the Tata Group for a reply.
