Like apple pie is iconic to the USA, TATA Group is a company so firmly entrenched in India, few others compare to it’s size. In total, there are 28 enterprises, which feed into the 8 major companies under the TATA umbrella. Annual sales for the 2008-09 business year topped $70 Billion, 65% outside of India, with worldwide employment of more than 357,000 people.

As a tourist of India, you’ll quickly be exposed to the different products TATA sells across the country. From mobile calling plans, cars, trucks and buses, the tea you drink, and even the hotel you sleep in, TATA will impact your time spent in India on a daily basis. But even after your Indian journey has finished, you’ll still be exposed to the many brands of TATA sold worldwide. Led by Ratan Tata since 1991, TATA Group has grown significantly to become a powerhouse brand representing Indian ingenuity.

Tata Steel

Tata Steel is the world’s sixth largest steel manufacturer. It operates in more than 20 countries and has a commercial presence in over 50. The company was established in Jamshedpur, India, in 1907. The company produces crude steel and basic steel products, and makes steel for building and construction applications through Tata BlueScope Steel, its joint venture with Australia’s BlueScope Steel.

Tata Steel is headquartered at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, India.

Tata Motors

Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company. Established in 1945, it is also among the world’s top five manufacturers of medium and heavy trucks and the world’s second largest medium and heavy bus manufacturer. It entered the passenger vehicles segment in 1991 and now ranks second in India’s in this market.

The company, formerly known as Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company, began manufacturing commercial vehicles in 1954 with a 15-year collaboration agreement with Daimler Benz of Germany. It has, since, developed Tata Ace, India’s first indigenous light commercial vehicle, Tata Safari, India’s first sports utility vehicle, Tata Indica, India’s first indigenously manufactured passenger car, and the Nano, the world’s cheapest car.

Most recently, Tata Motors acquired Jaguar/Land Rover from Ford Motor in 2009 for more than $2 billion.

Tata Motors’ plants are located at Jamshedpur (eastern India), Pune (west), and Lucknow and Pantnagar (north). Tata Motors and Fiat have set up a common manufacturing facility at Ranjangaon, near Pune. The company is establishing a new plant at Sanand, Gujarat (western India).

Tata Consultancy Services

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS helps clients optimise business processes for maximum efficiency and galvanize their IT infrastructure to be both resilient and robust.

A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 130,000 of the world’s best trained IT consultants in 42 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of USD5.7 billion for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2008, and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

Tata Power

Tata Power is India’s largest power utility in the private sector today, with a presence in generation, transmission, distribution and trading. The company was established in 1911 as the Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company to supply power to Mumbai.

Tata Power has an installed power generation capacity of over 2,300mw in the areas of thermal, solar, hydro and wind energy generation. In addition, the company is implementing a 4,000mw mega power project in Mundra, Gujarat.

Tata Chemicals

Tata Chemicals (TCL) is the second largest producer of soda ash in the world. It is India’s market leader in the branded and iodized salt segment as well as in urea and phosphatic fertilizers.

Established in 1939 at Mithapur in the Indian state of Gujarat, TCL has, over the last few years, invested in increasing its stake in the global soda ash business. It has acquired UK-based Brunner Mond group and American company General Chemical Industrial Products Inc, making the conglomerate the second largest soda ash producer in the world.

The company also makes food additives and fertilisers and has a varied user industry base comprising glass, paper, textiles, food additives, petroleum, refining, chemicals, dyes, pesticides, direct farm application, etc. It exports to markets in Europe, Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Tata Tea

Tata Tea is the world’s second-largest global branded tea operation with a presence in over 60 countries. The prominent companies in the group are Tata Tea, the UK-based Tetley group and Tata Coffee. In the US, consumers will best know Tata for it’s Eight O’Clock Coffee which it acquired several years ago.

Tata Tea is just one of several divisions housed under the Consumer Products category. Tata has a hand in watches, ceramics, books, jewelry, home and housewares and packaged water among other retail ventures.

Indian Hotels

The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) and its subsidiaries are collectively known as Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, which is recognised as one of Asia’s largest and finest hotel companies. Incorporated by the founder of the Tata group, Jamsetji Tata, the company opened its first property, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, Bombay in 1903.

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces comprises 64 hotels in 45 locations across India with an additional 15 international hotels. The most significant additions to the Taj portfolio have been The Pierre, the iconic landmark hotel on New York’s Fifth Avenue, the Taj Boston and the Blue, Sydney.

Tata Communications

Tata Communications is a leading global provider of telecommunications solutions serving the voice, data and next-generation service needs of carriers, enterprises and consumers in over 30 countries.

Earlier known as Videsh Sanchar Nigam, the company became a part of the Tata Group in 2002. In 2008, VSNL, VSNL International, Teleglobe, Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit, VGSL and CIPRIS were brought under one global brand name – Tata Communications. The company is now the number one global international wholesale voice operator and India’s largest provider of international long distance, enterprise data and internet services in India.