After Mahindra’s $10 mn, Tata donates $50 mn to Harvard

WASHINGTON - India’s Tata Group has given America’s prestigious Harvard Business School a $50 million donation, the largest gift the school has received from an international donor in its 102-year history.

Earlier this month Anand Mahindra, head of India’s Mahindra Group, gave $10 million to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees.

The funds will be used to build a new academic and residential building on the school’s campus in Boston. Harvard said it hopes to break ground for the building, which will be named Tata Hall, next spring.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd. since 1991, attended the school’s advanced management programme - one of three leadership programmes offered by the school’s executive education programme-in 1975 and received its highest honour, the Alumni Achievement Award.

Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria hailed the “historic gift.” Indian-born Nohria became the school’s 10th dean earlier this year. He has said his focus will be on business ethics, a cause he has long championed, particularly during the financial crisis.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)