The Hindu Business Line : `Tata group salaries are not extravagant'

Looking ahead
The group intends to gain leadership position in telecommunications.
No plans of getting into banking, civil aviation.
The group denies exiting from petroleum exploration and production.

Chennai June 14 The salaries of the top brass of the Tata group of companies have never been extravagant, the Chairman of the Tata group, Mr Ratan Tata, said today.

Speaking informally to journalists on the sidelines of a CII seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility, Mr Tata said that the observations of the Prime Minister (that salaries of heads of Indian companies need not be as high as they are) did not quite apply to the Tata group.

Answering a question on some of the areas that the group was not an industry leader, Mr Tata said that the group intended to gain leadership position in telecommunications. "It is our intention to grow and we want to provide end-to-end solutions," he said, adding that the group would adopt 3G technology, as and when it became available.

On petroleum exploration and production, he denied that the group had exited (the question had alluded to the company getting out of Hitech Drilling), and said that the Tatas were present in the upstream oil sector.

But in a small way? "It is only to be expected that in a group of about 80-90 companies, some will be small," he said.

Answering another question, he said that the group had no intention of setting up a bank.

Later, in another chat with journalists, Mr K.A. Chaukar, Managing Director, Tata Industries Ltd, said that the group had no intention of getting into civil aviation business.

When it was pointed out that the group had stakes in Spicejet, he said that it was "only a financial investment". At one point of time, the group was interested in aviation, but did not get the licence. Now the situation is different. "In our perception, now is not the opportune time for us to enter the sector," Mr Chaukar said.

Asked why the group would not enter banking sector either, he said that at present the regulations did not permit corporate houses setting up a bank. When pointed out that the RBI had said that this regulation could change in 2009, he said that the group would prefer to wait until that happened.

Asked if the Tata group favoured reservation in the private sector, Mr Tata said: "We want to create India as a land of equal opportunities for all. We should create a land of equality. We have been co-operating with the CII on this, much before the talks on reservation began."