The formidable challenges facing the next Tata Sons top boss - BBC News

Corporate India's most coveted top job is open. But finding a new leader for Tata Sons is no easy task.

Image source, NurPhoto via Getty ImagesImage caption, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran resigned on 12 August following alleged differences with Tata Trusts board

The shock resignation of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran earlier this month has left corporate India's top job vacant. But finding his successor will be no easy task for the country's most revered conglomerate, whose sprawling $300bn empire spans Jaguar Land Rover and Air India as well as manufacturing iPhones for Apple.

Chandrasekaran resigned amid a deadlock over his reappointment and a widening rift with Tata Trusts - the charity arm which owns controlling shares of the unlisted commercial holding company.

The disagreements are said to have centred over a public listing of Tata Sons as well as capital allocation for the group's various new unlisted businesses, including semiconductors, e-commerce and aviation, all of which are bleeding money.

The group has been in the middle of the largest ever capital investment cycle, with tens of billions of dollars being deployed on everything from building India's first chip fabrication plant to manufacturing EV batteries and turning around Air India, which the Tatas bought from the government in 2022.