Tata's African Safari The Tata Group is expanding aggressively in South Africa. But it's not just business opportunity that's driving Ratan Tata, it's emotional connect.

Business Today, May, 2005 by Roshni Jayakar

When Tata Group Chairman Ratan N. Tata landed in Cape Town in March this year, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that Tata Indica sales in the three months since its launch in October 2004 had exceeded that of any other car in South Africa, far ahead of incumbent market leaders Renault and Kia. Tata was doubly pleased that his vision for the country was unfolding according to plan.

Recalls Syamal Gupta, Chairman of Tata International (formerly Tata Exports): "(Ratan) Tata told me three decades back that the group must do some pioneering work in Africa." But Apartheid, and the African National Congress' call for economic sanctions against the country, prevented the Tatas from entering South Africa then. So, although Tata commercial vehicles were sold across Africa, and the...