Noel Tata Strengthens Grip on Tata Trusts with Son Neville, Ex-Titan MD Bhaskar Bhat’s Induction

Tata Trusts on Tuesday announced the appointment of Neville Tata, the 32-year-old son of Chairman Noel Tata, and former Titan Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat to the board of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT). Their appointment will be for a three-year term.

The move comes days after discord among the Tata trustees led to the resignation of Mehli Mistry, a close associate of the late industrialist Ratan Tata.

On Tuesday, SDTT’s board of trustees also decided to revise the tenure of Venu Srinivasan from lifetime to three years, in compliance with a Maharashtra government rule that caps the number of lifetime trustees a charitable trust can have. With six members currently, only one-fourth—or one member—of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust can be appointed for life.

According to a report by The Economic Times (ET), Tuesday’s meeting of the Tata trustees also reportedly disbanded the executive committee, which included the late Ratan Tata, Srinivasan, Vijay Singh, and former trustee Mehli Mistry.

The committee had been established to expedite the Trusts’ decision-making. Following its dissolution, the Tata Trusts CEO will now report directly to Chairman Noel Tata.

All About Neville Tata and Bhaskar Bhat

Neville N Tata is also part of three other Tata Trusts: the JRD Tata Trust, Tata Social Welfare Trust, and RD Tata Trust.

He currently leads the Zudio brand under Tata Group’s retail arm, Trent. Earlier, he was involved in Trent’s packaged foods and beverages division. Neville holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School, Singapore.

According to ET, Noel Tata’s son may also be inducted into the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT). Together, SRTT and SDTT own a 51% stake in Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt-to-software conglomerate.

Meanwhile, Bhaskar Bhat has been associated with the Tata Group for over two decades. He led its luxury watches arm, Titan, for 17 years between 2002 and 2019. Bhat is credited with expanding the company into categories such as eyewear, jewellery, fragrances, accessories, and sarees (Taneira).

Impact of the Maharashtra Amendment

A new ordinance by the Maharashtra government prompted the recent changes. The Maharashtra Public Trusts (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, was issued on 30 August. The ordinance noted that many trust documents lacked clarity on the appointment and tenure of trustees, leading to frequent litigations before the Charity Commissioner and courts—affecting both the functioning of trusts and the welfare of beneficiaries.

To address this, the ordinance introduced Section 30A, allowing for the appointment of tenure and perpetual trustees where no such provisions existed. Effective from 1 September, the new rule caps the number of perpetual trustees at one-fourth of the total trustees in any trust, irrespective of past practices or internal decisions.

Following the death of Ratan Tata, the trustees of Tata Trusts had passed a resolution to make themselves lifetime appointees once their current terms expired and they were reappointed. The resolution was intended to ensure stability within the group; however, internal disagreements among trustees later exposed flaws in this approach.

Currently, only Noel Tata has the lifetime tenure among the Tata Trusts.