Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran was awarded the Knighthood 'Most Excellent Order of the British Empire', the UK government announced Friday. Chandrasekaran won the civilian award for his services to India and UK business relations.
Chandrasekaran thanked King Charles III after receiving the recognition. "I am deeply humbled by this prestigious recognition, for which I am grateful to His Majesty, King Charles," he said.
"We are incredibly proud of our iconic British brands like Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley. We employ more than 70,000 people in the UK," he said, adding that the Tata Group will continue to work for a strong strategic relationship with the UK across the domains of technology, consumer, hospitality, steel, chemicals, and automotive sectors.
Bharti Enterprises’ Sunil Bharti Mittal has also been conferred Knighthood in the same category.
Knighthood is among the highest civilian awards bestowed by the British sovereign. Foreign nationals receive it as an honorary award.
The other foreign nationals who have been conferred with the British awards in 2024 include former Google CEO and chairman Eric Schmidt, Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund co-founder Dagmar Dolby, Harvard University Economics Professor Jason Furman and Rajinder Dhatt, founder member, Undivided Indian Ex-Servicemen’s Association, among others.
Chandrasekaran, popularly known as Chandra, was appointed to the top role at Tata Sons in 2017 following the ouster of Cyrus Mistry. He joined the Board of Tata Sons in October 2016.
Chandra is also the first non-Parsi at the helm of Tata Group. Prior to being appointed as the Tata Sons chairman, he had a 30-year stint at TCS, of which he was the CEO from 2009-17.
In 2023, Chandrasekaran was also awarded France’s highest civilian honour, the ‘Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur’ (Knight of the Legion of Honour). He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2022.