In a shocking move, Tata Group, a $108 billion business house, has removed Cyrus Mistry from the chairman's post and appointed Ratan Tata as the interim chief.

Mistry, born in Ireland, was the sixth chairman of the 150-year-old group. He had been in the post of the chairman since 2012, reported the Financial Express.
 
He was the first one to be appointed from outside the family for 70 years, it added.

Mistry is the youngest son of Pallonji Mistry, who heads the Shapoorji Pallonji group (a construction, real estate major), which is the biggest shareholder in Tata Sons with an 18 per cent stake.

The decision was taken at a board meeting on Monday. A Tata Sons spokesperson said: “The company’s board and the principal shareholders… took this decision, which they thought may be appropriate in the long term interest of Tata Sons and the Tata Group.”

With this move, Ratan Tata will come out of retirement to helm the company he ran for decades again, said the report.

A new selection committee has been constituted by the company comprising Ratan N Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya to choose the new chairman, it stated.

The committee has been mandated to complete the selection process in four months.

The move has sent shock waves to India inc as there was absolutely no hint about this development from recent events.

This is perhaps the biggest upheaval that corporate India has seen in recent years. It's a sudden move from a company that is usually very private and conscious of its public image, reported BBC.

Tata Sons owns Jaguar Land Rover, as well as Tetley Tea. It is one of India's oldest conglomerates and is made up of more than 100 companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Power and the IT giant, Tata Consultancy Services, said the report.

Tata employs almost 7,000 workers around Wales, including more than 4,000 at its troubled plant in Port Talbot, south Wales, it added.