AP PHOTOS: Tata is a household name for hundreds of millions across India

1 of 16 |

Firdosa Jan, a Kashmiri, pours Tata tea leaf into a container as she prepares tea in her kitchen on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

2 of 16 |

Prabhat Chandola charges his Tata electric vehicle in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

3 of 16 |

A woman fills a container with Tata lentils in her kitchen in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

4 of 16 |

Teisovinuo Yhome, 25, adds Tata salt, stored in a separate container, to a dish cooked on an open fire in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

5 of 16 |

Rita, 52, makes tea using Tata tea bags in New Delhi,India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

6 of 16 |

A man talks on his mobile phone next to a Tata satellite dish at a slum cluster on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, Oct.10, 2024.(AP Photo/Channi Anand)

7 of 16 |

Tata salt is kept in a wall shelf among other spices in a kitchen in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

8 of 16 |

A woman carries Tata steel buckets for filling water in a shanty area, in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

9 of 16 |

A man gifts a Tata made Titan sports watch to his friend in Guwahati, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

10 of 16 |

An elderly person gets down with a child from a Tata EV passenger bus in Guwahati, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

11 of 16 |

A woman works in her kitchen with steel utensils made by Tata inside her house in Prayagraj, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

12 of 16 |

A man cleans his Tata Nano car in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

13 of 16 |

Archana Patil, 40, her son Darsh Patil, 5, and daughter Bhavya Patil, 13, sit under a Voltas air conditioner, a Tata group product, at home in Ahmedabad, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

14 of 16 |

Motorists ride past a Tanishq jewelry store, a Tata group venture, in Ahmedabad, India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

15 of 16 |

A man walks past a Tata-owned Range Rover SUV luxury car in Mumbai India, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

16 of 16 |

An Air India aircraft, owned by the Tata Group, is seen parked against a double rainbow formed over Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

By ASHWINI BHATIA

NEW DELHI, India (AP) —

It’s hard to imagine many Indian households that aren’t somehow touched by the $100 billion conglomerate named for the family of Ratan Tata, who died in a Mumbai hospital on Wednesday at the age of 86.

Tata has been a mythical name in Indian consumers’ imaginations for generations. Every day, all across India, people consume the Tata Group’s salt and lentils, commute to work on Tata buses passing Tata cars and trucks after applying Tata beauty products in homes built from Tata steel.

In Kashmir, Firdosa Jan makes tea for her family from a packet labeled Tata Tea Gold. Hundreds of miles away in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, 25-year-old Teisovinuo Yhome is cooking a dish on an open fire, using Tata salt for seasoning.

Even though it was a business conglomerate, in the popular imagination, Tata was a man to envy and emulate.

At the turn of the 20th century, Ratan Tata’s grandfather, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, built the first luxury hotel in India, and many saw it as better than any the British rulers had built in the country. His uncle JRD Tata started the first airline in the country, and it earned praise for its service and punctuality.

Parse.ly - related stories

United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, shakes hand with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Government of India Press Information Bureau via AP)

Gabbard says Trump is committed to ensuring peace and security through ‘realism and pragmatism’

A woman has her face smeared with coloured powder as they celebrate Holi, the festival of colours, in Chennai, India, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

AP PHOTOS: With a kaleidoscope of colors, the Hindu festival of Holi signals the arrival of spring

Hindu devotees wait in a queue to offer prayers during Shivaratri festival in Jammu, India, India, Wednesday, Feb.26, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

AP PHOTOS: Devotees across India celebrate the Shivaratri festival in honor of Hindu god Shiva

Tata was socially conscious before corporate social responsibility became a buzzword for businesses.

The group was the first to introduce early employee benefit programs for its workers in 1896. It built a hospital in Jamshedpur, before starting a steel mill there. In 1892, it established an endowment fund for Indian students seeking to pursue higher studies abroad and in 1909 founded the Indian Institute of Science, now a public research university.

With time its legend has only grown. In 2008, the company grabbed headlines with its “People’s Car,” the Tata Nano. The car cost about $2,000 at its launch. In the same year, Tata acquired the iconic British brands of Jaguar and Land Rover.

Its product portfolio boasts dozens of brands. The ubiquitous Tata cars, watches, air conditioners, soaps, salt and tea are only a fraction of what the group produces or markets.