Jamsetji Tata

Jamsetji grew up in a small Parsi priest's family in Gujarat, but he dreamed of building things that would make India strong. He opened cotton mills, then imagined even bigger — a great steel city, cheap hydroelectric power for Bombay, a world-class hotel where Indians would always be welcome, and a science institute where Indians could invent for themselves.

He didn't live to see most of them finish, but his family and country built them all: the Taj Mahal Hotel, Jamshedpur, Tata Steel, Tata Power and the Indian Institute of Science.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839–1904) is regarded as the founder of Indian industry. Born in Navsari to a Parsi priestly family, he broke tradition to enter his father's small trading firm and travelled extensively through Britain, China, America and Japan studying industry.

He set up the Empress Mill in Nagpur in 1877, but his four great dreams were bigger: a world-class steel works, a hydro-electric power scheme, a research university, and a grand Indian-owned hotel.

He opened the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Bombay in 1903 after being refused entry to a European-only hotel. The other three took shape after his death: the Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru, 1911), the Tata Iron and Steel Company at what became Jamshedpur (1907), and the Tata Hydro-Electric power stations (1910–15).

Half his fortune was set aside for endowments — a philanthropic model still followed by the Tata Trusts, among India's largest charitable bodies.