So, in less than a year after his wife Meherbai's death, he donated all his wealth to the trust, insisting that it must be used "without any distinction of place, nationality or creed", for the advancement of learning and research, the relief of distress and other charitable purposes.
The wealth that he turned over to the trust comprised his substantial share holdings in Tata Sons, Indian Hotels and allied companies, his landed properties and 21 pieces of jewellery left by his wife, including the famous Jubilee Diamond, estimated then to be of the value of Rs 10 million.
The ideas that have generated from these institutions and the people who have passed through their portals have enriched the various facets of India's development.
In the last decade, the trust has also given shape to the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore and helped the Dr MS Swaminathan Research Foundation to start the JRD Tata Centre for Ecotechnology in Chennai.
Right from its conceptual stages in early 1941, until it became a national centre for cancer research and treatment, JRD Tata was there all along to guide its destinies.
In 1957, when the government of India's ministry of health temporarily took over the Tata Memorial Hospital, JRD Tata, along with Dr Homi Bhabha, the pioneer of India's nuclear energy programme, had the vision to foresee the role of radiation in cancer treatment and prevailed on the government to have the administrative control of the hospital transferred to the department of atomic energy in 1962.
Many years later, he established the JRD and Thelma J Tata Trust, selling part of his shares and an apartment in Mumbai.