The Tata conglomerate’s internal debate over going public has been complicated by past regulator appointments of key directors and ongoing disagreements among major stakeholders about the company’s future structure and governance.
The battle over Tata Sons’ future has widened beyond the long-running argument over Reserve Bank of India compliance, with questions now being asked about the past regulator roles of two of the conglomerate’s most influential directors. N. Chandrasekaran and Venu Srinivasan both served on the RBI’s Central Board, though not at the same time, and both later became central figures in Tata Sons’ internal dispute over whether the holding company should be listed.
Chandrasekaran joined the RBI Central Board in March 2016 as a non-official director and remained there until March 2022. His appointment pre-dated his elevation as chairman of Tata Sons in January 2017. Srinivasan was nominated in June 2022 as a part-time, non-official director and stayed on until August 2026, covering the period when the RBI was considering Tata Sons’ request to be allowed out of the upper-layer non-banking financial company category. A source familiar with the matter said the overlap in institutional roles was notable, even if it did not in itself prove any conflict of interest or wrongdoing.
Tata Sons has argued that Chandrasekaran’s term on the central bank board ended before the RBI began its process of classifying the group as an upper-layer NBFC. A company official said his stint had finished in March 2022, while the regulatory exercise involving Tata Sons began only in September 2022. Srinivasan did not respond to an email from The Indian Express. The timing matters because the RBI’s scale-based framework, introduced in October 2021, requires upper-layer NBFCs to list within three years of classification.
That regulatory path has brought Tata Sons to a difficult crossroads. The RBI rejected the company’s application to surrender its NBFC registration on September 11 and directed it to comply with the relevant rules, effectively reviving the prospect of a stock market listing. Business Standard reported that the central bank’s decision amounted to an immediate push towards listing, while Mint said the refusal meant the company could not avoid the requirement attached to its upper-layer status. The RBI had classified Tata Sons in that category in September 2022.
The board’s reaction on September 17 exposed a deeper split. Four directors , Srinivasan, Harish Manwani, Anita M George and Saurabh Agrawal , backed moves towards listing, while Noel Tata opposed the plan. The board also supported a new five-year term for Chandrasekaran despite Noel Tata’s objections. According to The Indian Express, this followed earlier resolutions in March 2024, under the influence of the late Ratan Tata, that the company should remain unlisted, and a further unanimous decision by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust in July 2025 to keep the structure unchanged.
For Srinivasan, the stakes are unusually high. He is not only a Tata Sons director but also a trustee of Tata Trusts and one of the Trusts’ nominees on the Tata Sons board. The Trusts collectively own 66% of Tata Sons, yet Srinivasan has emerged as a backer of listing while Noel Tata, who chairs Tata Trusts, has resisted it. One source told The Indian Express that Chandrasekaran’s earlier RBI board tenure ended before Srinivasan’s began and that there was no evidence those appointments influenced the RBI’s later decisions on Tata Sons. Even so, the confluence of regulatory history, ownership tensions and boardroom politics has turned a compliance dispute into a much broader struggle over control, governance and the future shape of one of India’s most powerful business groups.
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