Quotes from Ratan Tata

I would say that one of the things I wish I could do differently would be to be more outgoing.

If there are challenges thrown across, then some interesting, innovative solutions are found. Without challenges, the tendency is to go on the same way.

Some entrepreneurs talk of a high burn rate, high advertising rate, and so on, with no outcome, so it doesn't impress me. But an entrepreneur who has that kind of a feeling of responsibility towards his investors is somebody who will have all my support.

Jardine is the largest dealer of Mercedes in the world. They also sell cars for two or three Japanese makers.

I am in favour of disinvestment. But if a disinvested company has to tie up with a government company for its livelihood, there is a problem.

I'm the non-executive chairman of nine or so major companies, and on the nine companies, it's a little trying because you jump from one industry to another, as the case might be. But one had the reasonable knowledge of those nine activities, and it's been an exciting job.

I came seriously close to getting married four times, and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another. Each occasion was different, but in hindsight when I look at the people involved, it wasn't a bad thing what I did. I think it may have been more complex had the marriage taken place.

I think there are many honest businessmen.

There are many things that, if I have to relive, maybe I will do it another way. But I would not like to look back and think what I have not been able to.

Banana republics are run on cronyism.

Indian car buyers have not really been exposed to customer care in a competitive environment.

Apart from values and ethics which I have tried to live by, the legacy I would like to leave behind is a very simple one - that I have always stood up for what I consider to be the right thing, and I have tried to be as fair and equitable as I could be.

I quite frankly enjoy the touch and feel of a store, so I am a big bookshop person. Or, I go to an electronics store; Best Buy and Croma are places I could spend a lot of time in.

When you see in places like Africa and parts of Asia abject poverty, hungry children and malnutrition around you, and you look at yourself as being people who have well being and comforts, I think it takes a very insensitive, tough person not to feel they need to do something.

There has to be a drive to make the U.K. competitive in the motorcar industry or in the engineering industry. To do that, you have to give attention to the manufacturing sector.

I am interested in what I earn; I am interested in my growth.

Perhaps the loneliest time was during the Tata Tea issue in Assam. For some reason, everyone believed that we had conspired with the extremists, ULFA. People still believe what they read is necessarily the truth. Sometimes it is based on inadequate or wrong information.

New startups embody the creativity, the innovation of young people, and for me, it was and is a very worthwhile experience to interact with them.

Since I got involved in Telco, we first developed the first modular truck, the 407, then the 709, and now the 2213. These trucks broke away from the old face of Telco trucks. I was also just as much involved with the Safari, but nobody talks about the Safari. My involvement has been there with all Telco's projects -somehow the car has got hyped up.

People still believe what they read is necessarily the truth.

India needs to come out of its socialist pattern of doing things on a rationing basis.

What are the crumple zones on scooters? The helmet is the only crumple zone I can think of.

The economic situation, the high cost of undertaking manufacturing, the supply chain - which is, by the way, dying out also as manufacturing undergoes hardship - make the U.K. not the first place you would look at to make a manufacturing investment.

I buy a lot of electronics, some which I never take out of the box!