THE news that Tata Steel is considering a takeover of Corus will come as little surprise to anyone who has met the man at the helm of India’s greatest family firm. Ratan Tata is a recluse with ambitions to drive the Tata Group into the premier league of global corporations.

In an interview with The Times this year he said that Tata would be a household name in Britain within a decade. He appears to be on schedule to be proved right rather sooner than he predicted. Understatement is the Ratan Tata way. A popular but Gatsbyesque figure in Bombay, the 68-year-old bachelor has no hobbies except walking his dog. He lives in a modest apartment and dedicates himself to the family concern.

Despite his shyness he is thoroughly engaging. He chuckled at the irony of an Indian company indulging in a little reverse colonisation to acquire Tetley Tea in 2000 and of past and possible future sales of Indian cars to Britain. He spoke frankly about his cossetted, lonely childhood in a palatial home, where he saw few friends. He was tested by his uncle and father, who, when he returned from studying and working in America, sent him to far-flung outposts of the business empire, including the steel division.

“The intention was to break me,” he said. “I had to prove I wasn’t going to be broken.” He proved himself in unrewarding jobs, but it was still a surprise when he was handed control of the group on the death of his uncle, J. R. D. Tata.

It proved to be a brilliant appointment. He inherited an ailing giant, run by a host of chieftains running private fiefdoms. This was the early 1990s, when the Indian economy was beginning to open, and Mr Tata centralised control in his hands. With a clear vision of where India’s future lay, he focused on the development of high-tech companies, such as Tata Consultancy Services, now a world power in IT and business processing outsourcing. Simultaneously, he sought to grow Tata in “old” industries, such as cars and steel.

In a country where family firms have dominated for generations, the House of Tata is primus inter pares. Steel has always been at the heart of the dynasty. When the founder of the empire, the 19th-century industrialist Jamsetji Tata, built a steel mill, it earned him the scorn of colonial administrators but became a cornerstone for massive success.

One of 12 founding members — along with Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman — of Gordon Brown’s International Business Advisory Council, Ratan Tata is happy to play down his company’s growing appetite.

“We are still timid. We are still looking at digesting small bites,” he said. If Corus is a snack, what on earth is he planning for lunch?

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