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**Ratan Naval Tata** (Ratan Ṭāṭā, born 28 December 1937) is an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, and a former chairman of Tata Sons. He was also chairman of Tata Group, from 1990 to 2012, and again, as interim chairman, from October 2016 through February 2017, and continues to head its charitable trusts.[3][4] He is the recipient of two civilian awards of India, the Padma Vibhushan (2008), the second highest civilian honour, and the Padma Bhushan (2000), the third highest civilian honour.

Here's a timeline of Ratan Tata's life:

1937 - Born in Mumbai, India.
1948 - Parents were separated when Ratan was 10.
1955 - Graduated from Riverdale Country School in New York City.
1959 - Received a degree in Architecture from Cornell University.
1970 - Achieved initial success by turning Group company National Radio and Electronics (NELCO) around.
1991 - J. R. D. Tata stepped down as chairman of Tata Sons, naming him his successor.
2000 - Received the Padma Bhushan
2008 - Received the Padma Vibhushan in 2008, the third and second highest civilian honours awarded by the Government of India.
2010 - Tata Group companies and Tata charities donated $50 million for the construction of an executive center at Harvard Business School (HBS).
2012 - During the 21 years he led the Tata Group, revenues grew over 40 times, and profit, over 50 times.Where sales of the group as a whole, overwhelmingly came from commodities when he took over, the majority sales came from brands when he exited.[19][20] He boldly got Tata Tea to acquire Tetley, Tata Motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Steel to acquire Corus.
2012 - Ratan Tata resigned his executive powers in the Tata group on 28 December 2012, upon turning 75 and Board of Directors and Legal division refused to appoint Cyrus Mistry as a successor of 44-year-old son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the largest individual shareholder of the group and related by marriage.
2014 - Tata Trusts under the Chairmanship of Ratan Tata provided a grant of ₹750 million to the Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science to study mechanisms underlying the cause of Alzheimer's disease and to evolve methods for its early diagnosis and treatment. This grant was to be spread over 5 years starting in 2014.
2015 - He conceptualised the Tata Nano car. He explained in an interview for the Harvard Business School's Creating Emerging Markets project, the development of the Tata Nano was significant because it helped put cars at a price-point within reach of the average Indian consumer.
2016 - On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry was removed as the chairman of Tata Sons and Ratan Tata was made interim chairman.
2017 - Tata Motors rolled out the first batch of Tigor Electric Vehicles from its Sanand Plant in Gujarat, regarding which Ratan Tata said, "Tigor indicates a willingness to fast-forward India's electric dream. The government has set an ambitious target to have only electric cars by 2030."
2019 - Endowed a $28 million Tata Scholarship Fund that will allow Cornell University to provide financial aid to undergraduate students from India.
2021 - Received the highest civilian award of Assam 'Assam Baibhav' for his exceptional contribution towards furthering cancer care in Assam.