Jamshed J. Irani, popularly known as the “Steel Man of India,” passed away on Monday at the age of 86 at Jamshedpur’s Tata Main Hospital. Irani worked for Tata Steel for more than 40 years, and the corporation tweeted about his passing to the public.
In June 2011, Irani stepped down from the Tata Steel Board of Directors.
Jamshed J. Irani: Who was he?
Irani was born on June 2, 1936, to Jiji and Khorshed Irani in Nagpur, Maharashtra. In 1956, he completed his BSc from Science College in Nagpur, and in 1958, he graduated from Nagpur University with his MSc in Geology.
As a JN Tata scholar, Irani next went to the University of Sheffield in the UK, where he completed a master’s degree in metalworking in 1960 and a doctorate in metalworking in 1963.
In Sheffield, he began working for the British Iron and Steel Research Association in 1963. But he had always hoped to advance India’s industrial development.
In 1968, Irani relocated back to India and joined Tata Steel, or Tata Iron and Steel Company, as an assistant to the director in charge of research and development.
Irani eventually rose to the position of general supervisor for the business in 1978. He received a promotion to general manager in 1979, and in 1985 he was appointed president of Tata Steel.
Before retiring in 2011, he served as Tata Steel’s joint managing director from 1988 to 1992.
He joined the Tata Steel Board in 1981 and served as a non-executive director for ten years beginning in 2001. Irani served as a director for a number of Tata Group firms, including Tata Motors and Tata Teleservices, in addition to Tata Steel and Tata Sons.
He served as the board of governors’ chairman for the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow. In honour of their father, he and his sister Diana Hormusjee established the “Jiji Irani Challenge Cup,” a cricket competition run by the Zorostrian Club of Secunderabad.
