International Symposium on India's Industrialization: Challenges and Prospects

13:30 - 15:00

Topic

Divergent Paths of Internationalization within the Tata Group: A Long-Term Analysis of Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and Tata Consultancy Services

Speaker

Etsuro ISHIGAMI (Professor Emeritus, Fukuoka University / RIEB, Kobe University)

Abstract

This paper examines the divergent paths of internationalization followed by three major companies within the Tata Group: Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). While all three emerged from the same Indian business group and expanded substantially in global markets, their trajectories of internationalization have differed markedly. Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus in 2007 and Tata Motors' acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in 2008 represented large-scale cross-border acquisitions, whereas TCS expanded internationally primarily through the global delivery of IT services and the accumulation and deployment of human, organizational, and technological capabilities.

Taking a long-term perspective, the paper focuses not simply on how these firms entered or expanded in overseas markets, but on how their international operations subsequently evolved. Tata Steel experienced prolonged financial strain following the Corus acquisition and gradually restructured its European operations while expanding production capacity in India. Tata Motors retained substantial managerial autonomy at JLR, whose engineering, technological, and brand capabilities became increasingly important to the group's automobile business. TCS followed a different, relatively asset-light trajectory based on the Global Delivery Model, large-scale human-resource development, and continuous technological upgrading, while generating substantial profits and cash flows.

The comparison reveals considerable diversity in internationalization even among firms belonging to the same business group. It also draws attention to the role of the Tata Group’s organizational and financial structure in connecting otherwise divergent corporate trajectories. From this perspective, the three cases provide a basis for reconsidering the internationalization of emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) as a long-term process involving not only overseas expansion and capability acquisition, but also capability development, restructuring, resource reallocation, and adaptation to changing technological and market conditions.

15:00 - 16:30

Topic

Indian Business, Economic Development, and the Jobs Dilemma in the Twenty-first Century: A Book Talk

Speaker

Anthony P. D'COSTA (Honorary Professorial Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne)

Abstract

This presentation is based on my 2026 book Indian Business, Economic Development, and the Jobs Dilemma in the Twenty-first Century, https://tinyurl.com/Indian-Business-Jobs-Dilemma published by Oxford University Press. It covers the familiar ground of the Indian economy but approaches the issue of employment challenges by showing that formal businesses structurally are unable to make a dent in the surplus labor even as new business sectors contribute to growth. Low employment elasticity is not due to policies alone but results structurally from polarized labor markets, institutional dysfunctionality, the disadvantages of late industrialization, leapfrogging notwithstanding, and new geopolitical and economic realities.