The wealth generated by Jamsetji Tata and his sons in half a century of industrial pioneering formed but a minute fraction of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete: what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over.

Sharing Wealth to Diminish Disparities

For Jamsetji Tata, the progress of enterprise, welfare of people and the health of the enterprise were inextricably linked. Wealth and the generation of wealth have never "been ends in themselves, but a means to an end, for the increased prosperity of India," The Times of India said in 1912 of the Tatas.

Successive generations of Tata Group leaders have always held the belief that no success in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the interest of the nation and is achieved by fair and honest means.

Conscious that the task of social progress, especially in a country as diverse as India, cannot be undertaken by the Government alone, J R D Tata the Chairman of the Tata Group from 1938 to 1991, believed that, "to create good working conditions, to pay the best wages to its employees and provide decent housing to its employees are not enough for the industry, the aim of an industry should be to discharge its overall social responsibilities to the community and the society at large, where industry is located."

Guided by this mandate, Tata Steel has for decades used its skills and resources, to the extent it can reasonably afford, to give back to the community a fair share of the product of its efforts.

It was the first to establish labour welfare practices, even before these were made statutory laws across the world. In 1912 it invited Sidney and Beatrice Webb, the Founders of the London School of Economics, to prepare a Memorandum of Health for the Steel City. The Company also instituted an eight-hour workday in 1912, free medical aid in 1915, a Welfare Department in 1917, leave with pay, Workers Provident Fund and Workmen’s Compensation in 1920 and Maternity Benefit for ladies in 1928.

With the understanding that the hunger for employment can never be satisfied despite its best efforts, the Company took an enlightened decision to address the needs of those who migrated to its vicinity in search for employment. It first stimulated entrepreneurship and economic development in the Steel City and then reached out to the rural poor, empowering them with the means to create better livelihoods within their own villages.

At the same time, Tata Steel also fulfilled their basic need for health care, food security, education and income generation through the development of rural infrastructure, empowerment and community outreach programmes.

By virtue of the extent of its demonstrated commitment for decades, through the beliefs and values it has acted upon, the resources it has deployed, the wealth it has shared as well as the many "firsts" it has achieved through socio-economic programmes, Tata Steel is India’s acknowledged Corporate Social Responsibility leader and is recognised as a most humane organisation. Every lesson learned, every piece of knowledge gathered, the Company offers to all those who wish to work alongside it to "improve the quality of life of the communities it serves."