beyondbrics

Now that the race to fill Ratan Tata’s shoes has officially begun and a secret committee has been set up to name his successor, industrialists in south Bombay – as they prefer to call Mumbai – are having a good time at their local members-only clubs betting on who will takeover the helm of India’s most prestigious corporate group.

The highest odds are – no surprises – on Noel Tata, Ratan’s 53-year-old half brother. As James Lamont, our South Asia bureau chief, wrote on Wednesday evening Noel Tata’s recent appointment as head of the group’s international operations is to this date the clearest sign that he is the most likely candidate as future chairman.

However, the group founded by JRD Tata, a corporate visionary who summed up the family’s corporate ethos by saying “I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be happy” has left the door open for an outsider to be kept in consideration for the job.

“The Board of Tata Sons has formed a selection committee comprising five members, including an external member for eventually deciding on a suitable successor to Ratan N Tata,” Tata Sons, the Group’s holding company, said in a statement.

The apparent openness to “external” candidates, which reflects Tata’s global stature in the in the corporate world, as more than half its revenues come from outside India, has electrified punters in Mumbai.

So who might beat Noel Tata? Here is shortlist of names:

1) INDRA NOOYI, 55, chief executive PepsiCo (who topped the FT’s top 50 women in world business)

2) CARLOS GHOSN, 56, chairman and chief executive of Renault Nissan.

3) VIKRAM PANDIT, 53, chief executive of Citigroup.

4) ANSHU JAIN, 47, head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate and investment banking business.

5) NIKESH ARORA, 42, president of global sales and business development of Google.

6) ARUN SARIN, 56, former chief executive of Vodafone

7) NANDAN NILEKANI, 55, the head of the unique ID project and former chairman of Infosys Technology

Nilekani’s profile seems to be the best suited to take on Ratan Tata’s role. He has succeed internationally with his company Infosys, India’s second largest outsourcing and software company; he is very well respected among the political circuit; and he has been intellectually very active, both as an author and via his New India Foundation. More importantly, he is a global executive with strong domestic roots, as he has lived most of his executive life in India.

The other candidates – all extremely successful Indians or Indian origin executives – have worked most of their career outside India and have lost touch with the local reality. The “New India” is not like the US or France or Great Britain. Some also have very little experience in the manufacturing sector, which is a vital segment of the Tata group.

The new chairman will have to able to merge global stature with local know-how and must be an all-rounder comfortable to lead a $71bn-worth tea-to-steel conglomerate in a seamless way. Nilekani seems to be the fittest man for the job.