Remarks on Mukesh house, Britons incorrect: Rata Tata

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata has expressed wonder on why Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani would like to live in a 27-storey opulent home in South Mumbai when there is so much of scarcity around in the lives of people.

“It makes me wonder why someone would do that,” Ratan Tata was quoted in an interview published on Saturday in The Times, London.

“The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and [ask] can he make a difference,” Tata said.

He was commenting on Antilla, the multi-storeyed Ambani mansion on Altamount Road.

“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,” he said.

Mukesh Ambani in 2010 was named among the most powerful people in the world by Forbes in its list of “68 people who matter most”.

He is the second richest man in Asia and the ninth richest man in the world with a personal wealth of US$27 billion.

Ratan Tata also criticized the British work ethics and said Britons did not go the extra mile like Indians.

?In India if you are in a crisis, if it means working to midnight, you would do it. The worker in JLR [Jaguar Land Rover which has been taken over by the Tatas] seems to be willing to do that, the management is not,? he told the newspaper.

“It’s a work ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody. I feel if you have come from Mumbai to have a meeting and the meeting goes on till 6pm, I would expect that you won’t, at 5 o’clock, say, ‘Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home’,” he said, according to the interview.

The Tata group took over steel maker Corus in 2006 and car maker Jaguar Land Rover in 2008 to become the biggest manufacturing employer in Britain.