N Chandrasekaran awarded Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor for strengthening India-French relations and business
Published Date – Wed, 17 May 23 at 04:50pm
Photo: IANS
New Delhi: Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran has been awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honor, for promoting relations and conducting business between India and France.
The award was presented to Chandrasekaran, 59, at the Foreign Office in Paris on Tuesday by Europe and Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna.
He was accompanied by his wife Larissa and son Pranav.
“The Tata Group is an important player in the French-Indian partnership: I am delighted to present its CEO with the Knight of the Legion of Honor on behalf of the President of the Republic. Dear Natarajan Chandrasekaran, you are a friend of France,” Colonna tweeted after the award Wen said.
“Dear Natarajan Chandrasekaran, you are a true friend of France,” Emmanuel Lenain, the French ambassador to India, tweeted.
The Legion of Honor is France’s highest military decoration. It was founded in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.
France is one of India’s largest scientific partners, with more than 25 R&D centers, 15 Indo-French joint research laboratories and 500 collaborative projects in the country.
According to Payal S. Kanwar, director general of the India-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IFCCI), there are currently 10 Tata group companies operating in France.
“The Tata family has deep French ties, from JRD Tata, who was half-French born in Paris, to Simone Tata, one of the founders of IFCCI. Recently ordered 250 Airbus A320neo and The historic order for the A350 and 800 Safran engines further boosts business between the two countries!” Kanwar wrote on her Instagram.
Last year, Chandrasekaran received a five-year extension as chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of more than 100 Tata-operating companies with combined annual revenues of more than $100 billion.
He also chaired the boards of several of the group’s operating companies, including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Indian Hotels Corporation and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he served from 2009-17. CEOs of these companies.
Apart from his career at Tata, Chandra was also appointed as a director of the Reserve Bank of India, India’s central bank, in 2016.
He was appointed as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Singapore Economic Development Board in 2018.
