‘For all our people’: Ratan Tata’s legacy of mass market innovations spanned the cheapest car to cost-effective water purifiers

Putting speech the Nano’s selling shortcomings, it was often referred to arsenic India’s archetypal ‘lakhtakia’ – a car which costs each of Rs 1 lakh, a fewer thousands much costly than two-wheelers.

“What truly motivated me, and sparked a tendency to nutrient (Nano), was perpetually seeing Indian families connected scooters, possibly the kid sandwiched betwixt the parent and father, riding to wherever they were going, often connected slippery roads… At first, we were trying to fig retired however to marque 2 wheelers safer, the doodles became 4 wheels, nary windows, nary doors, conscionable a basal dune buggy. But I yet decided it should beryllium a car. The Nano was ever meant for each our people,” Tata wrote connected Instagram successful 2022.

A twelvemonth aft the Nano’s launch, the Tata Group, nether Ratan Tata’s leadership, introduced different “Nano” product—this clip successful the h2o purifier market. In precocious 2009, Tata Chemicals launched Tata Swach, a bottom-of-the-pyramid merchandise aimed astatine combating the emergence of water-borne diseases successful India’s agrarian areas. At the time, it had 2 variants priced astatine Rs. 749 and Rs. 999, making Tata Swach the world’s astir cost-effective h2o purifier.

Speaking astatine its launch, Tata had said, “Safe drinking h2o is the astir basal of quality needs. The societal outgo of h2o contamination is already tremendous and increases each year. Although today’s announcement is astir giving millions much radical affordable entree to harmless water, it is an important measurement successful the semipermanent strategy to find a solution to supply affordable entree to harmless h2o for all.”

Tata Swach is simply a portable, replaceable filter-based purifier that uses low-cost earthy ingredients, delivering harmless drinking h2o and purifying up to 3,000 litres of water. Requiring nary energy oregon moving water, an aboriginal mentation of the merchandise was archetypal developed arsenic portion of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami alleviation efforts.

Similarly, the communicative of Tata Salt is different illustration of the group’s absorption connected the communal person. Although launched successful 1983, earlier Ratan Tata roseate to the helm of the conglomerate, helium was instrumental successful turning Tata Salt into India’s starring nationalist brackish brand.

Promoted arsenic ‘Desh ki Sehat, Desh ka Namak,’ Tata Salt was launched astatine a clip erstwhile goitre was wide successful the country. It pioneered brackish iodization, introducing iodized, vacuum-evaporated brackish to a marketplace dominated by unbranded, unpackaged alternatives.

Building connected the occurrence of Westside, launched successful 1998 arsenic a retailer of branded apparel, footwear, accessories, and location products, Tata Group’s Trent introduced Zudio successful 2016, focusing connected budget-friendly fashion. Led by Noel Tata, Ratan Tata’s measurement member and wide regarded arsenic his imaginable successor, Trent continues to travel the bottom-of-the-pyramid strategy Ratan Tata shaped during his enactment of the conglomerate.

With astir Zudio items priced nether Rs 999, the marque has gained immense popularity and is present expanding into the mass-priced quality segment. It operates implicit 550 standalone stores—more than doubly the fig of Westside—in implicit 160 cities crossed India, including galore tier-2 and -3 cities. Zudio is besides driving overmuch of Trent’s growth, which generated implicit Rs 12,000 crore successful gross successful 2023-24.