Housing.com, TATA group - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: Eruch N Kapadia

Explanation:
Tata Sons, the promoter of major Tata Group companies, has appointed group veteran Eruch N Kapadia as its new chief financial officer (CFO).

Mr. Kapadia, who is vice-president at Tata Sons and a member of the audit committee at Tata Business Support Services, assumed the new role following the retirement chief operating officer (COO) F. N. Subedar.

He will report to Tata Group CFO Saurabh Agrawal.

Mr. Kapadia is a Tata Group veteran with more than 18 years of service in Tata Chemicals in different roles.

Besides being a chartered accountant, he is also a cost accountant.

ANSWER: A. Subramanian

Explanation:
Tata Sons on July 13, 2017 appointed Aarthi Subramanian, executive director at TCS, as the Tata Group’s chief digital officer.

Ms. Subramanian will report to N. Chandrasekaran, executive chairman of Tata Sons, in her new role and continue to serve on the board of TCS as a non-executive director.

Aarthi has a great track record of successfully leading large teams to achieve excellence in customer service delivery and has been a strong advocate of proactive value addition for customers.

As the group’s chief digital officer, she will play a key role in driving digital adoption across group companies as well as the group’s digital initiatives.

ANSWER: Saurabh Agrawal

Explanation:
Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran announced a key recruitment at holding company Tata Sons on 22^nd May 2017, of veteran investment banker Saurabh Agrawal as group chief financial officer.

Agrawal, who will join from July, is currently the head of strategy with the Aditya Birla Group.

As group CFO at Tata Sons, he will have to focus on bringing back some of the loss-making businesses on track. Agrawal was instrumental in handling the Idea-Vodafone merger deal, as well as the Grasim-Aditya Birla Nuvo merger for the Birla entity.

It will be the second big appointment by Chandrasekaran, after that of Ankur Verma, former managing director of investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who joined Tata Group in March.

Prior to the Birla job, Saurabh Agrawal was heading corporate finance at Standard Chartered Bank in India and South Asia.

He had also been the head of investment banking at DSP Merrill Lynch, where he worked with Chandrasekaran on Tata Consultancy Services’ initial public offer of equity in 2004, beside later acquisitions.

Agrawal brings deep capital markets knowledge and valuable cross-industry experience to this critical leadership role in the Tata Group.

Saurabh Agrawal is a graduate of IIT Roorkee, with a post-graduate management degree from IIM Calcutta.

One of the stated complaints of Tata Group patriarch Ratan Tata against former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry was that the latter had not appointed a group CFO after Ishaat Hussain retired as Tata Sons’ finance director in 2012.

The group CFO position is important and considered a second link between Tata Sons and its subsidiaries, after the chairman.
The group CFO will also have to decide on job cuts ensure that Tata Sons gives enough dividends to Tata Trusts, which own 66 per cent stake in the company.

ANSWER: NTT DoCoMo

Explanation:
Tata Sons has formally announced that it has reached an agreement with NTT DoCoMo of Japan.

This was its joint venture partner in Tata Teleservices Ltd., for an out-of-court settlement of their dispute.

As per the announcement, TATA Group and NTT DoCoMo have embarked on a joint approach to enable enforcement of the June 22, 2016, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) award.

The two had jointly applied to the Delhi High Court, requesting that it accept their agreed terms of settlement, subject to such further orders as the court sees fit.

The settlement terms, if approved by the Delhi High Court, would clear the way for the US$1.18 billion already deposited by Tata Sons with the Delhi High Court to be paid to NTT DoCoMo.

It would also allow DoCoMo to transfer its shares to Tata Teleservices Limited.

In 2009, DoCoMo acquired 26.5 % stake in Tata Teleservices.

The two also agreed on a clause at that time that allowed the Japanese firm to exit the venture at a pre-determined minimum price.

The Reserve Bank of India, however, felt that such an exit could happen only at fair market value in tune with an amended rule in 2013. Since then, the dispute between the two has become a legal war.

The DoCoMo dispute is the centre of the TATA Sons dispute with Cyrus Mistry.

ANSWER: Indian Hotels Company Ltd

Explanation:
Tata Group hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company Ltd has said N Chandrasekaran has been elected as the Chairman of its board of directors.

He was initially appointed as a Member of the board on January 27, 2017.

Chandrashekaran had taken over as Chairman of Tata Sons on February 21, becoming the first non - Parsi Chairman of the USD 103 billion Tata Group after heading its leading company TCS for years.

Indian Hotels: Know More

- CEO: Rakesh Sarna (1 Sep 2014)

- Headquarters: Mumbai

- Founder: Jamsetji Tata

- Parent organization: Tata Group

ANSWER: Cyrus Mistry

Explanation:
Following shareholders’ vote during an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), Cyrus Mistry was removed as director of Tata Industries on 12 December 2016.

It is the first such instance in which an executive has been ousted from the board since his removal as Chairman of Tata Group.

As per reports, the extraordinary general meeting was called exclusively to remove him from his office.

Tata Industries is a subsidiary of Tata Sons. Several Tata companies namely Tata Motors, Tata Power and Tata Steel holds equity in the company.

Mistry was also sacked as TATA Group chairman on 24th Oct 2016.

He was replaced by Ratan Tata in the interim.

TATA Power has called an EGM on 26th Dec 2016; Mistry is currently Chairman of TATA Power.

The Board of Tata Industries, post the EGM, constitutes K.R.S. Jamwal, R. Bhinge, Ireena Vittal, Ashish Dhawan, N. Srinath, and F.N. Subedar.

Cyrus Pallonji Mistry

• Joined: 2006 (TATA Sons)
• Appointed Chairman of the Board on Dec 2012.
• Irish businessman of Indian origin.
• Sixth chairman of TATA Group.
• Only the second to not bear the surname Tata.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
After TCS, Cyrus Mistry was removed as chairman of TATA Global Beverages, whose board voted for Harish Bhat instead.

• TATA Global Beverages is a company that makes Tetley and Eight O’Clock Coffee
• Bhat is a TATA Group insider
• He joined the entity in 1987 under TATA Administrative Services
• He earlier worked as COO of Titan and also authored the “ TATA Log: Eight Modern Stories From a Timeless Institution.”
• This is the second time that Mistry has been removed from a TATA entity
• TCS earlier replaced him with Ishaat Hussain as the interim chairman
• 7 of the 10 directors present in the board voted against Mistry as chairman of TATA Global Beverages
• Mistry’s office has said the statement is illegal as the matter of removal of the chairman was not on the agenda and the meeting concluded as Mistry was chairman
• Two independent directors, Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh also opposed the bid at committing illegal acts.
• Mistry found support in the boards of Indian Hotels Company, TATA Chemicals, TATA Motors and TATA Steel
• The boards company happened before the sacking of Mistry as chairman of TATA Sons on 24th Oct
• Ousted chairman Mistry has countered allegations he contributed to rising expenses and impairments at TATA Sons
• “In the five years, several group centre (GCC) members held what were deemed “non-executive” roles in Tata Sons. They, including Mr. Ratan Tata, drew their compensation as commissions from Tata Sons instead of salaries. Several erstwhile directors of Tata Sons drew additional parallel commissions from operating group companies,” the statement released by Mistry said
• TATA Sons also bore the office costs of Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, according to Mistry who said the figure was at INR 30 crore in 2015 and a significant amount was used for corporate jets.
• Mistry also pointed to investments of a questionable nature including the INR 400 crore investment in Nagarjuna Refiners and some investment in SASOL JV with South Africa’s SASOL in cola to liquid)
• “One investment in Piaggio Aero, a company in the aerospace sector with a friend of Mr. Tata, was especially distressing. Tata Sons decided to exit the company at a commercial loss of Rs 1,150 crore. This was after the efforts of Mr. Bharat Vasani (Chief legal Counsel Tata Sons) and Mr. Farokh Subedar (COO at Tata Sons) who managed to recover Rs. 1,500 crore, overcoming the objections of Mr. Ratan Tata who in contrast favoured increasing investments in that company. Today, the company is, for all practical purposes, nearly bankrupt,” Mr Mistry’s office said in a statement.

ANSWER: None of the above

Explanation:
TATA Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has invested in GOQii a virtual fitness coaching platform.

• According to the IDC, GOQii has been ranked number one with a market share of 16.1 percent in Q2, 2016
• Its CEO and founder is Vishal Gondal
• The company is headquartered in CA with offices in Mumbai and China
• It is a leader in health and lifestyle coaching platforms
• It offers wearable application, guidance from international experts and counselling
• The company raised USD 13.4 million in Series A Funding in November 2015
• TATA group and Ratan Tata have invested in numerous Indian and global startups as well as through RNT Associates.