Tata Trusts to boost philanthropic spend to ₹2,000 crore, CEO sidesteps ‘chaos’ narrative

Tata Trusts will increase its philanthropic spending to about Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal, according to its CEO Siddharth Sharma, who hit back at media focussing only on 'chaos' in the congregation of charities that control Tata Sons, the holding company of the over $180 billion Tata Group.

Seeking to put "the record straight about the core activity of the Tata Trusts, for which we exist- philanthropy", in a post on LinkedIn, Sharma bemoaned the media amplifying "certain narratives unfortunately, at times, without verification & analysis- that happens", terming it "both the reality and the tragedy of our times".

Recollecting how the Tata Trusts came into existence and its purpose, he wrote, "As the majority shareholders in Tata Sons, we deploy, year after year, the dividends that we receive, into philanthropic causes that uplift those at society's margins and help build a nation. This predates, by 122 years, the CSR mandate that was introduced in 2014 for Indian business.

Sharma further said, "For FY 25-26 alone, the philanthropic spending of the Tata Trusts was Rs 1,600 crores approx., slated to go up to Rs 2,000 crores in the current fiscal."

This scale of spending, on a year on year basis, he said, "has enabled us to provide quality, yet affordable cancer care, to citizens of Assam, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and UP."

Sharma further said Tata Trusts is finalising a collaboration with a reputed educational institution to set up a world class university for undergraduate studies, while it is also contributing to setting up a state of the art multi-speciality hospital in Central India, among other projects it is undertaking.

His post was in response to "someone offering to help me address the 'chaos' at the Tata Trusts".

Sharma's post comes amid simmering tension among trustees of the congregation of philanthropic bodies under the Tata Trust umbrella, which controls 66% of Tata Sons, a situation that has continued since last year and now requires the intervention of Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Notably, the matter of public listing of Tata Sons has divided opinion among the trustees, with Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata against it while Vice-Chairman Venu Srinivasan and another trustee, former defence secretary Vijay Singh publicly supporting it.

One of the trusts, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, is also facing an inquiry into alleged violation of norms related to composition of the board of trustees initiated by the Maharashtra State Charity Commissioner.

Sharma, however, in his post asserted that "Tata Trusts are continuing to do what they do best- serving those at the margins of society. No hype, no publicity; only solid, hard work. Everything else is noise."