Tata group hopes to decide on a successor to iconic chairman Ratan Tata by February or March of 2011, RK Krishna Kumar, a director on the board of group holding company Tata Sons, said on Thursday.
"We are rigorously working on a plan for a successor," Ratan Tata told reporters, on the sidelines of a shareholders meeting of group firm Indian Hotels. He said the process was likely to take 6-7 months.
On Wednesday, the group said it had formed a panel to search for a successor for Ratan Tata, who will retire by the end of 2012 and may even look overseas, which could result in its first non-Indian chief executive.
The new person would require some months time to work with Ratan Tata so that the transition is smooth, Krishna Kumar told reporters.