The hopes, challenges, and opportunities of India's globalizing economy are closely intertwined with those of Tata Group and its chairman, Ratan N. Tata. The country's second-largest conglomerate—with revenues of $17.8 billion (in the financial year ending 2005) and core interests ranging from steel, cars, and telecommunications to software consulting, hotels, and consumer goods—has come a long way since he stepped up as chairman, in 1991. That also happened to be the year when India launched the economic reforms that were to make it one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

When the 67-year-old Tata, a Cornell-educated architect, succeeded his uncle J. R. D. Tata at the helm of the then-stodgy company, he set out to unite, refocus, and modernize the sprawling group of almost 100 largely independent businesses. Helped by cash from its booming software unit (Tata Consultancy Services) and by the growth of India's economy, he has rebuilt its shareholdings in its largest subsidiaries (by revenue), including Tata Motors and Tata Steel, and increased its revenue sixfold. In 1995 he took on the passenger car business—an effort that three years later resulted in the launch of India's first indigenously designed, developed, and produced car, the Indica. The gamble paid off....