Maharashtra asks Centre to confer Bharat Ratna on Ratan Tata, renames industry award after him

Maharashtra seeks Bharat Ratna for Ratan Tata, who passed away, and will rename its Udyog Ratna award and Udyog Bhavan in his honor.

The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday passed a resolution seeking a Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, for Ratan Tata, who died in Mumbai on Wednesday. A note seeking this posthumous honour for the industrialist has been sent to the union government.

The state government observed a day’s mourning and cancelled all its scheduled programmes. Chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar also went to the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) where Tata’s body had been kept for people to come and pay their last respects.

State industries minister Uday Samant also announced that Maharashtra’s highest award for industrialists, the Udyog Ratna, will be renamed after Tata. The award was instituted last year for an industrialist making significant contribution to the development of the state, and Ratan Tata was its first recipient.

“It was my childhood dream to meet Ratan Tata and when the state government declared the award for him, I got a chance to meet him at his home,” said Samant, while making the announcement. The Udyog Bhavan at Charni Road will also be renamed after Ratan Tata, he added.

Tata, who was chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, had been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian honour, in 2008. In 2021, too, there had been a clamour to award him the Bharat Ratna, to which he had responded by posting this on social media: “While I appreciate the sentiments expressed by a section of the social media in terms of an award, I would humbly like to request that such campaigns be discontinued. Instead I consider myself fortunate to be an Indian and to try and contribute to India’s growth and prosperity.”