When JRD Tata took charge of the Tata Group in 1938, he moved the conglomerate towards a model in which professional managers, rather than members of the Tata family, played a central role in running its businesses. Both JRD and his successor, Ratan Tata, named many professionals over the years to lead various companies. But it took eight decades for the group to appoint its first chairman who was neither a Tata nor had any family links with the Tatas.
That person was Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who this week surprised everyone by resigning from his position.
Chandrasekaran was chosen to lead Tata Sons, the group’s holding company, in 2017 after the sacking of Cyrus Mistry from the top job after just four years at the helm. Mistry’s removal in 2016 by the board of Tata Sons, which is controlled by the charitable arm Tata Trusts, triggered one of the most consequential boardroom battles in the group’s history.
Now, the group is preparing for another transition. Chandrasekaran, who was CEO of Tata Consultancy Services before being picked as the group head, will leave the chairmanship of Tata Sons when his current term ends in February 2027.
His departure follows months of uncertainty over his reappointment. A proposal to extend his term by five years came before the Tata Sons board in February but did not get unanimous support. Six months later, there was still no agreement.
The significance lies in the uncertainty around the succession. Tata Sons sits at the centre of a group that spans more than 30 companies, from TCS and Tata Motors to Tata Steel and Air India. It is also an unusual holding company. Tata Trusts, the group’s philanthropic arms, own about 66% of Tata Sons, giving them a controlling position in the parent company.
That arrangement is part of what makes Tata distinctive. It connects a vast commercial enterprise to institutions whose purpose is also philanthropic. The structure has helped preserve the group’s long-term orientation, while also making questions of ownership, governance and leadership closely intertwined.
Tata Trusts will now form a selection committee to find the next Tata Sons chairman.
The process comes as Tata is pursuing several long-term investments that the next chairman will inherit.
Chandra, as he is popularly known, led the group through a period of expansion and transformation. During his tenure, the combined market value of the group’s listed companies nearly quadrupled. Under Chandra, the group ventured into new areas such as semiconductors and electronics while also taking on the challenge of rebuilding Air India after its acquisition from the government. At the same time, some businesses are facing pressures. TCS is dealing with changes in the global technology-services market while Jaguar Land Rover has faced a difficult operating environment.
These businesses and investments have very different time horizons. The next chairman will inherit not just a portfolio of companies, but a series of decisions about where Tata puts its capital, how long it is prepared to wait for newer businesses to mature and how much continuity it wants in the strategy set under Chandra.
Markets reacted to that uncertainty almost immediately. TCS fell 3.9% on August 12, while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Titan and Tata Steel also declined, although all ended above their intraday lows.
The reaction does not necessarily tell us what investors think the next chairman will do. It tells us something simpler: a change at the centre of Tata’s structure has created a new variable for markets to assess.
A leadership change is not unfamiliar territory for the group. But Tata’s leadership history has never been simply a story of one family member handing the reins to another. It has also been about balancing legacy, professional management and control. Chandra’s departure brings that balance into view again.
What remains unknown is whether the next chairman represents a continuation of the current strategy or a different approach to the group’s increasingly complex portfolio.
For now, the useful way to read the market reaction is not as a verdict on Tata’s future. It is a reminder that, in a group this large and unusually structured, leadership itself can become part of the risk investors have to assess.
Buying Into Credit
Moving from one large conglomerate to another, the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led empire struck a big-ticket deal this week as it agreed to sell a 49.9% stake in the non-bank lending arm of Jio Financial Services to Bank of America.
BofA will shell out Rs 18,268 crore ($1.92 billion) for the stake in Jio Credit Ltd, valuing it around $3.8 billion.
But why would one of America’s biggest banks want to own almost half of a young Indian lender?
Jio Credit has more than $3 billion in assets under management, a milestone it reached in just two years of starting operations. That growth is one reason the deal stands out. But it is not the only one.
BofA is entering at a time when India’s bank and non-bank credit market is expanding at double-digit rates, especially across segments such as personal loans, gold loans and small-business credit.
The broader financial sector has also attracted a series of large foreign investments.
Japan’s MUFG bought 20% of Shriram Finance for $4.4 billion in December 2025. In October, Emirates NBD bought 60% of RBL Bank for about $3 billion while buyout firm Blackstone invested $705 million in Federal Bank for a 9.9% stake, and Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company invested $1 billion for a 43.5% stake in Sammaan Capital.
Japan’s SMBC bought 20% of Yes Bank for $1.6 billion in May 2025 and later bought another 4.99%. In April 2025, Warburg Pincus and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority invested $877 million in IDFC FIRST Bank. The month before, Bain Capital bought an 18% stake in Manappuram Finance for $508 million.
Overall, foreign investors put $11.7 billion into India’s financial sector in 2025, according to Grant Thornton data.
The pattern is becoming difficult to miss. Global financial institutions are gaining exposure to India’s financial growth through investments in both banks and non-bank lenders.
Jio Credit makes that pattern more interesting because of how quickly it has been built.
Jio Financial was created through the demerger of Reliance’s financial-services business and listed in 2023. Since then, it has been building businesses across lending, payments, insurance broking and asset management, often alongside global financial partners. BlackRock is its partner in asset and wealth management and Germany’s Allianz is its partner for general and health insurance.
The BofA transaction fits a strategy that is broader than lending alone: Jio Financial is bringing global giants into different parts of its financial services business.
There is another reason the transaction matters. Building a lending business requires more than finding customers. The quality of underwriting, risk management and loan pricing becomes increasingly important as a lender grows. Jio Credit is moving quickly, but it is also still relatively young. The partnership gives it additional capital and a global financial institution as it expands. BofA itself described the investment as providing Jio Credit with capital to support growth and the expertise of a global financial firm.
What makes the current cycle worth watching is not simply the amount of money involved. It is the form that some of the money is taking: strategic stakes and joint ventures that give global financial institutions a direct presence inside India’s expanding financial system.
Money Matters
July was a good month for Indian stocks. It was also a softer month for equity mutual-fund flows even though better-than-expected corporate earnings and the return of foreign investors provided a supportive backdrop.
Net inflows into equity mutual funds fell 14.8% from June to Rs 24,697 crore but remained in positive territory for the 65th month in a row, according to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).
Large-cap funds recorded an outflow of Rs 1,322 crore, their first monthly outflow since December 2023.
But the broader picture was less subdued. Mid-cap funds attracted Rs 6,192 crore in July, up 1.7%, while inflows into small-cap funds soared 39% from June to Rs 7,768 crore in July.
The contrast is notable as various segments of the market recovered at a difference pace since their lows in March due to the US-Iran war. While the small-caps have climbed 32%, the mid-caps over 22% but the Nifty 50 has risen barely 10%.
AMFI chief executive Venkat N Chalasani said the return of foreign investors, who tend to have greater exposure to large-cap stocks, may have allowed some domestic investors to book profits after the market’s improvement.
That is one explanation for the shift, rather than a conclusion that can be drawn from the fund-flow data itself. A redemption does not tell us why an investor sold, or whether the money was subsequently moved into another part of the market.
What is clearer is that SIP contributions remained steady. Monthly SIP contributions rose slightly to Rs 31,961 crore in July from Rs 31,781 crore in June, remaining close to the record Rs 32,087 crore reached in March.
The numbers point in two directions at once:
One, overall equity-fund inflows moderated, while SIP contributions remained strong. Two, within equity funds, large-cap schemes saw money leave while mid- and small-cap schemes attracted more.
It is tempting to read this as a lasting shift in investor preference. One month of data is not enough to establish that. For now, the data looks more like a change in the distribution of equity flows than a broad retreat from equities. Whether that becomes a lasting shift will take more than one month to show.
IPO Rush
With mutual fund investors remaining broadly undeterred and markets recovering from the lows of March, many companies are taking advantage of the revival and floating their initial public offerings.
Over the past couple of weeks, more than a half-dozen companies have launched or completed their IPOs and some more have either filed draft documents or announced price bands for their share sales in coming weeks.
The companies in the first set include hospital operator Manipal Health, renewable energy company Jupiter Green, e-commerce logistics company Shiprocket, dairy company Milky Mist, diagnostics chain Molbio, auto-parts maker Dhoot Transmission, and supply chain firm LEAP India. Most of these IPOs included large offer-for-sale portions that has helped founders and their private equity or venture capital investors to monetise their investments.
Shiprocket’s Rs 1,620 crore IPO, which comprises a fresh issue of Rs 886 crore and an offer for sale by investors including venture capital firms Tribe Capital and Lightrock, was subscribed more than eight times by early Friday.
Milky Mist’s Rs 1,553 crore IPO comprised a fresh issue worth Rs 1,428 crore and an offer-for-sale of Rs 125 crore by its founders. The IPO was covered 56 times, with institutional investors bidding for 156 times the quota reserved for them.
Molbio’s Rs 940 crore IPO was covered 70 times and Dhoot’s Rs 3,067 crore IPO was subscribed 74 times, thanks to institutional investors bidding for 150-200 times their quota. LEAP India’s Rs 2,480 crore IPO was covered over eight times and helped its private equity investor KKR make a partial exit.
Next week, Blackstone-backed warehouse developer Horizon Industrial Parks will launch its Rs 2,600 crore IPO. And there are more to come in the next few months, led by NSE and Reliance Jio. In addition, AGS Health filed an updated draft prospectus for a Rs 4,800 crore IPO, which involves private equity firm Blackstone will sell shares worth Rs 3,000 crore.
Non-bank lenders Svatantra Microfin and Muthoot FinCorp also filed their DRHPs for IPOs that will raise Rs 3,000 crore each while Zetwerk has filed an updated prospectus for an IPO that will raise Rs 2,600 crore in a fresh issue.
Market wrap
India’s stock market benchmarks slipped this week after rising for two weeks, as elevated crude oil prices due to a stalemate between the US and Iran weighed on investor sentiment.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.8% this week and the BSE Sensex lost 0.6%. In the broader market, the mid-cap index climbed 0.5% but the small-caps dropped 0.7%.
All but one of the 16 major sectoral indexes fell this week. Metal stocks led the losers with a 1.9% drop while heavyweight financials lost 1%.
State-run Bharat Electronics, drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Labs and Titan were the top performers, rising 2.3-2.4% each. They were followed by Bharti Airtel, Zomato parent Eternal, and Bajaj Finance.
At the other end, hospital chain Max Healthcare fell the most–5.7%–after reporting only a 4.7% rise in first-quarter profit. UltraTech was at No. 2, shedding 4%.
Most Tata Group stocks were in the red after the sudden resignation of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran. TCS fell 3.7% while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles slid 3.6%.
Mining and metal stocks such as Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Coal India declined 2-3% each. FMCG giants ITC and Nestle India slipped about 2.7% each. Among heavyweights, Reliance Industries fell 1.9%.
Earnings Snapshot
- JSW Cement swings to Q1 consolidated profit of Rs 161 crore vs loss of Rs 1,356 crore year ago
- LG India Q1 net profit rises 27% to Rs 653 crore from Rs 513 crore a year earlier
- Max Healthcare profit rises 4.7% to Rs 322 crore from Rs 308 crore a year ago
- Apollo Hospitals Q1 profit jumps 34% to Rs 581 crore, tops forecasts
- Lenskart’s Q1 profit soars nearly four-fold to Rs 222 crore
- State-run Hindustan Aeronautics posts 15% year-on-year rise in profit to Rs 1,590 crore
- Grasim swings to standalone net profit of Rs 63.22 crore from net loss of Rs 118 crore year ago
- Tyre maker MRF posts 2% fall in Q1 profit to Rs 474 crore
- Vodafone Idea’s Q1 loss narrows to Rs 3,754 crore from Rs 6,608 crore last year
Other Headlines
- Retail investors’ losses in F&O market fall 18% to Rs 91,685 crore ($9.61 billion) in FY26
- Fitch affirms India rating at ‘BBB-‘ on robust growth, flags youth job risks to fiscal profile
- US judge dismisses criminal case against Gautam Adani
- TCS flags alleged exposure of some employee data, says customer data not impacted
- CESC unit to buy renewable energy assets from ReNew Solar for $510 million
- BSE to replace Wipro in Nifty 50 index
- Petronet says no clarity on September LNG supplies from Qatar
- Parliament passes bill to restrict state governments from imposing new taxes on mining
- SEBI chief says sees no manipulation in new stock closing auction mechanism
- SEBI proposes to widen foreign investors’ access to non-farm commodity derivatives
- India’s goods trade deficit widens to six-month high of $31.98 billion in July
- Air India expands drug testing to all pilots after captain tests positive for marijuana
- Larsen & Toubro gets data centre order of up to Rs 15,000 crore from US firm Together AI
- Godrej Consumer CEO Sudhir Sitapati resigns abruptly, shares plunge
That’s all for this week. Until next week, happy investing!
Interested in how we think about the markets?
Read more: Zen And The Art Of Investing
Watch here: Investing in International Markets
Start investing through a platform that brings goal planning and investing to your fingertips. Visit kuvera.in to discover Direct Plans and Fixed Deposits and start investing today. #MutualFundSahiHai #KuveraSabseSahiHai
