Tata v Tata: What’s behind India’s big boardroom brawl?

New Delhi, India – An unprecedented power struggle has erupted at the top of one of India’s largest conglomerates, pitting the board of its holding company Tata Sons against its majority shareholder Tata Trusts.Last week, Tata Sons extended Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s term and said it would consider publicly listing the holding company, flying in the face of the family charity that controls the 158-year-old Tata Group.Extending Chandrasekaran’s chairmanship and taking Tata public is at the heart of the family-linked feud – and its outcome will not be limited merely to the group’s headquarters at Bombay House.Collectively, listed Tata companies have a market capitalisation of $277bn and influence over 17.7 million retail shareholders apart from pension funds, insurers and mutual funds, investment advisory firm InGovern said.So what’s behind the bitter brawl inside one of the corporate world’s most consequential boardrooms?Late Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata conducts a media preview in front of a Jaguar C-X75 hybrid at the India Auto Expo in New Delhi on January 5, 2012 [Manish Swarup/AP]How big is the Tata Group?The Tata Group business conglomerate spans industries from information t...