The Tatas as a group have long stood for trust and extremely high standards of quality and caring for employees, community and shareholders. Yet recent events show that the once sterling silver reputation enjoyed by the over $50 billion group in its home market of India is beginning to be assailed.
The group has run into several social problems concerning environmental and resettlement issues which perhaps point to some lacunae in the group's processes. Sample this; in Singur West Bengal, Tata Motors is having serious diffculty putting up its small car plant and associated vendor park despite unstinted support from the ruling Communist government in the state and its party cadres. Contrast this with a position until recently where any Tata project would be welcomed with open arms and much happiness by the local populace, regional and state authorities.
Further down the coast of East India, the Dhamra port being set up by Tata Steel & L&T seems to have run into opposition from environmetalists which is thretening to stymie work on phase two and three of the port which wass billed to be one of the largest on the East coast of India when fully complete.
Fly down to the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Tata steel has yet to make any substantive progress on its ilmenite mining project despite signing a memorandum of understanding with the state government in June 2007. Here villagers whose land will be acquired for the project are reportedly unhappy with the relief and resettlement package being offered by the Tata group.
Now this hat trick of environmental and social problems is threatening to catch up with the group overseas too. Tata Chemicals soda ash project in Tanzania has been put on hold after environmentalists from the region took strong objection to the impact the project would have on availibility of fresh water in the region and the impact on eco tourism.
So what has happened with the Tatas which has resulted in a traditional welcome from stakeholders turning into a protest. Has the group lowered its standards from earlier or is there something else at play?
Experts feel that while the Tatas may have built a solid reputation in the past from exceeding what standards were expected of them by law, they have perhaps failed to keep pace with the rising expectations that those in the resource extraction businesses have had to face in recent times.
Today companies engaged in mineral exploitation have to not just meet environmental standards but also secure a social license to operate by ensuring they mitigate the effects of environmental damage and livelihood loss of the affected people. Part of this rise in expectations may be linked to the risisng prices and profits, mining and resource extraction companies have been making in recent years.
Perhaps the Tatas have been slow to adapt to this reality of changing & perhaps rapidly rising stakeholder expectations and unless they change this super fast to stay ahead of the pack, they may soon find that their once unassailable reputation no longer seems the gold standard.

What do you think is going wrong with the Tata's ability to implement major projects which involve acquisition of land?

What do you think the Tatas need to change about the way they should approach major projects?

Do you think the Tatas will be able to salvage and restore their once pristine reputation in this field?