[1] Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata was born on 29 July 1904 to an Indian Parsi family in Paris, France.

He was the second child of businessman Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his French wife, Suzanne "Sooni" Brière.

His sister's sister-in-law, Rattanbai Petit, was the wife of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who later became the founder of Pakistan in August 1947.

After his mother's death, Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata decided to move his family to India and sent J. R. D. back to England for higher studies in October 1923.

[6] Upon discovering Tata could not only read and write French and English,[7] but could type as well, a colonel had him assigned as a secretary in his office.

Previously he had been engaged to Dinbai Mehta, the future mother of The Economist editor Shapur Kharegat.

[citation needed] That same year he flew the first commercial mail flight to Juhu, in a de Havilland Puss Moth.

[10] The first flight in the History of Indian aviation[dubious – discuss] lifted off from Drigh in Karachi to Madras with J. R. D. at the controls of a Puss on 15 October 1932.

For decades, he directed the huge Tata Group of companies, with major interests in steel, engineering, power, chemicals and hospitality.

He was famous for succeeding in business while maintaining high ethical standards – refusing to bribe politicians or use the black market.

In 1956, he initiated a programme of closer 'employee association with management' to give workers a stronger voice in the affairs of the company.

He firmly believed in employee welfare and espoused the principles of an eight-hour working day, free medical aid, workers' provident scheme, and workmen's accident compensation schemes, which were later, adopted as statutory requirements in India.

Jamshedpur was also selected as a UN Global Compact City because of the quality of life, conditions of sanitation, roads and welfare that were offered by Tata Steel.

In 1992, because of his selfless humanitarian endeavours, Tata was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna.

[17] In his memory, the Government of Maharashtra named its first double-decker bridge the Bharatratna JRD Tata Overbridge at Nasik Phata, Pimpri Chinchwad.

[19] Employees and their non-employee partners were compensated for undergoing sterilization, and factory plant departments were awarded for achieving the lowest fertility rate.

In 2012, Tata was ranked the sixth "The Greatest Indian" in an Outlook magazine poll, "conducted in conjunction with CNN-IBN and History18 Channels with BBC.