Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata was the foresighted founder of Jamshedpur. This great steel town is named after him and justifiably so. Jamshetji had realized that the country’s freedom and poverty and ignorance lay in industrialization, the three ingredients of which were steel, power and scientific knowledge, and he gave India her first modern steel industry (The Tata Steel Works at Jamshedpur), her first power generating system (The Tata Hydroelectric Projects) and her first research institute (The Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore).
Jamshetji Tata died in Germany in 1904. Three years before his grand project, the steel works, was set up at Sakchi. The TISCO was registered on 27th August 1907 with initial capita of Rs. 2 crores.
On the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial statue of J.N Tata in Bombay, The Times of India wrote. “He was above all a patriot who made no public speeches. His mind, wealth, and the industry which led to wealth, were not ends in themselves, but means to an end, the stimulation of the content resource of the country and its allocation in the scale of nations.”
It would be seen, indeed, as if the hour of his birth, his life, his talents, his actions, the chain of events that he set in motion and the services he rendered to his country and to his people were all predestined as a part of the greater destiny of India.
This great man is still held in affection and veneration by lakhs of poor people, a respect vividly expresses on Founder’s Day celebration, which is held every year on the 3rd March since 1932.
