'Tata India's best-known global brand'

Days ahead of Ratan Tata's retirement, an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) survey said the $100-billion Tata Group was perceived to be India's best-known global brand within and outside the country.

"Ratan Tata occupies the well-deserved iconic status. He has taken the group from largely an Indian family-owned business house into a professionally managed global conglomerate," the survey said.

About 77 per cent of those who participated in the survey said they were confident Tata's successor Cyrus Mistry would be able to steer the group well. Assocham said it had surveyed about 78 top chief executive officers and heads of both domestic and foreign companies in the first fortnight of December.

The survey, it said, was conducted not only in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, but also in London, New York and Singapore.

However, the respondents said the biggest challenge for Mistry would be to ensure the Tata companies were able to sail through the global slowdown.

Photograph: Reuters