The Tata Sons battle over compliance with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) norms, including the possibility of listing the group’s holding company, has taken on another dimension. Two of its key directors, N Chandrasekaran and Venu Srinivasan, have also served on the RBI’s Central Board, albeit at different points in time.
Chandrasekaran was appointed a non-official director on the RBI Central Board in March 2016 — much before he was appointed as Tata Sons Chairman in January 2017 — and remained on it until March 2022. He was among the government-nominated directors on the powerful central board.
Srinivasan joined the RBI Central Board much later. In June 2022, the government nominated him as a part-time, non-official director for four years. He was on the RBI Central Board board till August 2026. That’s the period when the RBI was vetting Tata Sons’ application for deregistration as a Non-Banking Financial Company in the Upper-Layer (NBFC-UL).
Therefore, the two men did not overlap on the RBI Central Board, with Chandrasekaran’s tenure preceding Srinivasan’s. Yet both went on to serve on the Tata Sons board and are now central figures in the company’s bitter internal dispute.
“That coincidence of institutional roles is significant, even if it does not by itself establish any conflict of interest or impropriety,” said a source. The RBI took nearly two and a half years to decide on Tata Sons’ application for deregistration.
However, a Tata Sons official said Chandrasekaran’s term on the RBI board had ended before the RBI began its exercise to classify it as an upper-layer NBFC. He finished his term in March 2022 and all this at Tata Sons started in September 2022, the official said.
Srinivasan did not respond to a mail from The Indian Express.
The classification as an NBFC-UL put the company on a path towards listing. Tata Sons subsequently sought to surrender its regulatory registration in an attempt to avoid the listing requirement. On September 11, the RBI rejected the application and directed the company to comply with the applicable regulatory requirements. The decision effectively put Tata Sons back on the road to a public listing.
Tata Sons listing
On September 17, the Tata Sons board decided to proceed with steps towards listing. Four directors — Venu Srinivasan, Harish Manwani, Anita M George and Saurabh Agrawal — supported the move, while Noel Tata opposed it. The board also backed a fresh five-year term for Chandrasekaran, despite Noel Tata’s opposition.
In July 2025, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, unanimously passed resolutions that the company should remain unlisted and the same was duly communicated to Tata Sons for necessary action.
The Tata Sons board had already considered the matter of public listing and reached a unanimous conclusion in March 2024, under the guidance of late Ratan Tata, and had resolved that it should remain unlisted. Venu Srinivasan and Chandrasekaran were party to these board decisions at a time when Ratan Tata was the guiding force. Noel Tata joined Tata Sons board in November 2024.
For Srinivasan, the position is consequential. He is not merely a Tata Sons director, but is also a trustee of Tata Trusts and a nominee of the Trusts on the Tata Sons board. The Trusts collectively own 66% of Tata Sons. Yet Srinivasan has emerged as a supporter of the listing, while Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, has opposed it.
RBI’s NBFC classification
In October 2021, the central bank introduced a scale-based regulatory framework for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), dividing them into base, middle, upper and top layers. Under the framework, an NBFC classified in the upper-layer was required to list on an exchange within three years of its identification. It was clear to all then that Tata Sons will be classified as an upper layer-NBFC.
In September 2022, Tata Sons was classified as an upper-layer NBFC by the RBI. “Chandrasekaran’s earlier tenure on the RBI Central Board ended before Srinivasan’s began. There is no evidence that their RBI appointment influenced the regulator’s subsequent decisions on Tata Sons,” said a source.
Noel Tata has opposed Chandrasekaran’s continuation and argued that Tata Sons should explore all permissible avenues to avoid a public listing in the September 17 board meeting. He has also questioned the board’s decision-making process and called for a formal selection committee for the appointment of a successor.
Srinivasan, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the key voices on the other side of the Tata Trusts divide. His relationship with Noel Tata has deteriorated over the future ownership structure, and the listing of Tata Sons.
