Almost a year after the death of Ratan Tata, India’s largest business conglomerate, the Tata Group, is facing an unprecedented crisis. Tata Trusts, the charitable umbrella that owns a 66% stake in Tata Sons, is witnessing a bitter boardroom battle.
The Tata Trusts rift
According to reports, on one side of this split are Chairman Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, while on the other side are Mehli Mistry, Pramit Jhaveri, Darius Khambatta and Jehnagir Jehangir.
The two sides are divided over issues such as the appointment of nominee directors to the board of Tata Sons and how much information on Tata Sons board deliberations should be shared with the trustees.
In fact, this crisis came to light when Vijay Singh, a former Defence Secretary, was ousted as a Tata Sons nominee director by the opposing group. On the other hand, Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan are believed to have blocked the nomination of Mehli Mistry to the Tata Sons board.
Tata crisis: Govt steps in
The magnitude of this crisis can also be sensed from the fact that the government was forced to step in. At a meeting held at the residence of Home Minister Amit Shah, and attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Noel Tata, N Chandrasekaran, Venu Srinivasan and Darius Khambatta were reportedly told to restore stability and take stern action against any trustee, if needed.
IPO rush on Dalal Street
This week, mainboard primary issues worth over ₹30,000 crore hit the market, with LG India’s IPO emerging as the most successful in terms of subscription. The ₹11,600 crore issue was subscribed 54 times, the highest in 2025 so far. LG India’s shares are expected to list on October 14.
On the other hand, Tata Capital’s ₹15,000 crore IPO saw a muted response versus expectations. The issue was subscribed to around two times, with institutional buyers showing the strongest interest. Shares of the company are expected to list on the October 13.
WeWork India also brought its IPO earlier this week to raise over ₹3,000 crore. That issue saw a muted response, with subscriptions just above the number of shares offered.
Biometric payment authentication
It was a busy week for India’s fintech space as well, as key players congregated at the 6th Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India has democratised digital technology, making it accessible to every citizen. He also thanked India’s fintech community and underlined that our Swadeshi solutions are gaining global relevance.
The event also saw the launch of biometric authentication of UPI payments by the NPCI. The feature will allow users to authenticate payments with their face or fingerprints. Payments platform Razorpay unveiled a similar feature for credit card payments.
Apple’s succession planning
Apple CEO Tim Cook turns 65 next month, and the tech giant is reportedly working on a succession plan now. According to Bloomberg, John Ternus, senior vice president of hardware engineering, has been identified as Cook’s likely successor. However, there is no clarity yet on when the change of guard at the iPhone maker will take place.
Equities up, precious metals shine
India’s benchmark indices gained around 1.5% each, with the Sensex scaling 82,500. The Nifty also ended the week above 25,000. In the commodity space, gold and silver prices continued to soar.
During the week, physical gold hit a record high of 1,26,000 rupees per ten grams, though it slipped a bit later. The price of physical silver, however, continued to soar, crossing 1,70,000 rupees per kg.
