4 things modern Indian industry must learn from Jamsetji Tata’s Nagpur Empress Mills

From tech integration to Swadeshi spirit to labour welfare, Jamsetji Tata had the foresight to know what would make a successful business. It's relevant even today.

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata | YouTube

Exactly 150 years ago, Jamsetji Tata launched the Central India Spinning, Weaving and Manufacturing Company in Nagpur, later renamed Empress Mills on 1 January 1877. This company had many aspects of novelty and ingenuity, which made it a highly successful endeavour. Other industries that Tata envisioned, especially iron, steel, and power, had strong foundations in the success of the Empress Mills. Till today, the schemes he implemented in Nagpur have served as enduring hallmarks of the Tata Group, one of the most successful and respected conglomerates in India.

Technology integration

Before establishing Empress Mills, Jamsetji Tata had set up Alexandra Mills in Chinchpokli earlier. He sold it later on to undertake a visit to England to study the cotton trade in detail. There, Jamsetji gained a lot of knowledge about the quality of manufacturing, mechanisation, and human resources. His first experiment in Nagpur was not a runaway success, and he soon shifted focus to ring frames, which had been in use in the United States since the 1850s with significant enhancement in production processes and simplicity. Tata introduced ring frames in Nagpur, which were not produced in English mills at the time.

The results were spectacular. Novel technology integration, therefore, served as an important milestone in the journey of his successful industrial venture. The ability to take calculated risks on technological innovations is something which is an important message for all modern Indian industrial houses.

Supply chain logistics

Making finished products closer to areas with a wide availability of raw materials is a vital aspect of manufacturing. Managing supply chain logistics is considered a crucial ingredient of success. Jamsetji Tata had the foresight to consider this important aspect. Cotton, coal, and water being available in plenty in Nagpur made the city a great choice to start the Empress Mills. The choice to set up shop in Nagpur instead of Bombay, where most other textile mills were situated, was mocked by his peers but made terrific business sense to Tata. In modern times, this is also a lesson on the ever-growing realisation of carbon footprint due to the transportation of raw materials.

Swadeshi in spirit

In the mid-19^th century, while the nation was in the fervour of the Swadeshi movement advocated by Gopal Hari Deshmukh, Swami Vivekananda, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and others, Jamsetji Tata was at the forefront of making India an indigenous manufacturing hub. Realising that the colonial masters had used technological prowess as one of the means of colonisation, his principal objective was to make India self-reliant in the manufacturing industry using the latest contemporary technologies. His trip to England had convinced him that the success of the English mills could be replicated in India.  This would allow him to not only embrace the “make-in-India” spirit but also begin to aspire to be a global leader in the textile industry.

Labour welfare

In addition to technology integration and management of supply chains, one of the most important programmes implemented by Jamsetji Tata in the mills in Nagpur pertained to labour welfare.  Realising that workers needed to be motivated in factories, he promoted a number of welfare initiatives, including the provision of healthcare facilities, provident fund, accident compensation, crèche for childcare during working hours, township for living, clean water supply to the township, and schools for worker’s children. In that sense, Jamsetji Tata was among the pioneers of social capitalism in the world. His concerns about the workforce and their well-being were exemplary and indeed ahead of the rest of the world.

In a capitalist society, civilians own capital, operate businesses, and get benefits thereof, while in a communist setup, the state owns production and distributes rewards. While the former has often been criticised for increasing social and financial inequality, neither of the two extremes exists anywhere in the world. Varying hybrids of these two economic models are functional in specific contexts.

One hybrid model that integrated privately owned industry with strong social commitments began in the cotton mills of Nagpur — and has stayed firmly in the ethos of the Tata Group ever since. Jamsetji Tata’s emphasis on education and research by seeding the idea of the Indian Institute of Science demonstrated his zeal in all the four hallmarks described above — the use of contemporary technologies backed up by scientific discoveries, Swadeshi spirit, managing supply of talented human resources, and educating youth in knowledge creation.

The modern Indian industry has many things to learn from Jamsetji Tata’s initiatives. In an era when subtle battles are being ensued on intellectual property ownership, Indian industry significantly lags behind the rest of the world, and must, therefore, substantially enhance its efforts to create its own knowledge bases. R&D needs urgent attention from all major Indian industrial houses. The need for taking calculated risks in implementing new technologies and being the first in class is something that the Indian industry must embrace now. Moreover, pursuing business interests with a humane face is critical. The regulatory requirements of corporate social responsibility have arisen only recently but should be embraced in true spirit by all industries. Jamsetji Tata’s example will forever remain one of the most inspiring in our society.

Shekhar Mande is the retired Director General of CSIR and is currently affiliated with Savitribai Phule University, Pune.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)