MUMBAI: The 64-year-old Natarajan Chandrasekaran is set to receive a third five-year term from the Tata Sons board on Tuesday, extending his chairmanship through February 2032, when he will turn 70—five years beyond the typical retirement age for top executives at Bombay House. The largest shareholder, Tata Trusts, had already reaffirmed their faith in him last October, signaling leadership continuity and policy stability as the $120-billion diversified group undertakes significant capital commitments.
Tata Sons is convening an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday to secure shareholder approval for reappointing Chandrasekaran as executive chairman for a third five-year term. The move, coming a year before his current term ends, underscores the desire for continuity as the group navigates heavy capital investments and rapid technological disruption, according to observers at Bombay House.
Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, will be 65 next year when he completes his second five-year term—the typical retirement age for top executives at Bombay House. The third term would extend his tenure to February 2032, when he turns 70.
Observers believe he will remain in his executive role until 70—an exception previously made for the late Ratan Tata when he returned to Bombay House during the interregnum between Cyrus Mistry’s ouster in October 2016 and Chandrasekaran’s appointment in February 2017.
Typically, Tata Sons shareholders and the board approve the appointment or reappointment of a chairman a year in advance to ensure stability and give the incumbent sufficient time to plan and execute strategy.
The group has committed nearly Rs 1 trillion in fresh investments over the coming years. These include an $11-billion Innovation City near the new Navi Mumbai international airport focused on AI, electronics, and semiconductor research; a Rs 27,000-crore semiconductor and electronics facility in Jagiroad, Assam; and another large electronics manufacturing unit planned in the state.
Additionally, Tata Sons has earmarked Rs 30,000 crore for renewable energy projects, including green hydrogen initiatives in Maharashtra, along with data centres and AI infrastructure. Strategic investments worth another Rs 30,000 crore are being directed toward key growth areas such as Tata Digital, Air India, and the defence sector.
Analysts say continuity at the top is critical for these investments to reach fruition, which explains the shareholders’ intent to grant Chandrasekaran another term.
Another significant leadership challenge is the AI-driven disruption facing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the group’s most successful company and its primary profit contributor. TCS has historically contributed around 90% of the profits received by Tata Sons, in which the Mistry group holds an 18.6% stake.
In FY25, Tata Sons reported a net income of Rs 26,231.74 crore, down 24.3% from Rs 43,893 crore in the previous year. Revenue stood at Rs 38,834.58 crore, 11.5% lower than Rs 34,653.98 crore in the prior fiscal. Dividend income—largely from TCS—rose to Rs 36,149.05 crore, reflecting Tata Sons’ 71.9% ownership in the IT major. The board consequently recommended a higher dividend of Rs 64,900 per share, up from Rs 35,000 in FY24.
Chandrasekaran must also address the long-pending listing issue of Tata Sons, which is registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a non-deposit-taking non-banking financial company (NBFC). Given its size and interconnectedness within the group, the RBI classified it as an upper-layer NBFC.
Although Tata Sons wrote to the RBI in August 2024 seeking cancellation of its NBFC licence—after repaying over Rs 23,000 crore in debt by March 2024—its name still appeared on the RBI’s January 2026 list of upper-layer NBFCs.
Under an October 2022 RBI circular, large NBFCs were required to list by September 2025. Tata Capital complied with this requirement through a mid-October listing last year.
The six-member Tata Sons board comprises Chandrasekaran as chairman; Noel Naval Tata as vice-chairman; Venu Srinivasan as the nominee director of Tata Trusts; Saurabh Agrawal as director and chief financial officer; and Harish Manwani and Anita Marangoly George as independent directors.
Typically, Tata Trusts nominates one-third—or up to a maximum of three—board members. Since trustees voted down Ajay Singh’s reappointment for a fourth term last September, that vacancy remains unfilled. The episode generated considerable negative press for the Trusts.
Stabilising Air India, particularly after the Ahmedabad tragedy in June last year in which all but one of the 265 people on board perished, and strengthening the airline’s financial position remain key priorities for Chandrasekaran, according to analysts.
Over the past nine years, the group has nearly doubled its revenue and more than tripled its net profit and market capitalisation, while investing Rs 5.5 trillion to become “future fit,” Chandrasekaran noted in the latest annual report.
Separately, the top management of TCS is scheduled to make a presentation to the Tata Sons board next week outlining its artificial intelligence pivot. The presentation aims to address board concerns following a stock market sell-off in technology stocks, including TCS, whose market capitalisation has fallen to a multi-year low of Rs 9.6 trillion amid rapid AI-led innovation.
In his New Year message to employees, Chandrasekaran stated that by FY27, all new businesses would rank among the top five group companies by revenue and achieve profitability. However, he did not address Air India, which had one of its most challenging years in 2025 following the Ahmedabad tragedy.