India bids farewell to Ratan Tata

Ratan Tata, India's most respected industrialist and philanthropist who passed in Mumbai yesterday, was cremated this evening with full state honours amidst a rising outpour of rich tributes from all walks of life.

The Mumbai police paid tribute to Tata with a gun salute as the last rites were performed as per the Parsi tradition, one of the priests present at the crematorium said.

The industry icon's family members, including half-brother Noel Tata, and top executives from the Tata Group like chairman N Chandrasekaran, were present at the crematorium in Worli locality of central Mumbai.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, his cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, his deputy Devendra Fadnavis and senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde, among others, were also present.

After the funeral, there will be three more days of rituals which will be conducted at the late industrialist's bungalow in Colaba in south Mumbai.

Tata died after a brief illness at a Mumbai hospital late on Wednesday night.

Earlier that day, Tata's mortal remains mounted on a truck made their final journey to the Prayer Hall at the Worli crematorium.

Shantanu Naidu, a long-time associate of Ratan Tata, led the funeral riding a Yezdi motorcycle out of Tata's residence.

"Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse," Naidu added in his emotional post, which included a photo of the two in what appeared to be a chartered aircraft.

Tata and Naidu shared a deep bond, forged over their mutual love and concern for dogs. Naidu, a Pune-based young man, had initially started working for a Tata group company and this shared passion brought them closer.

Leading Bollywood personalities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas condoled the passing away of Ratan Tata, the chairman emeritus of the Tata Group.

Bachchan collaborated with Bipasha Basu and John Abraham in the 2004 Hindi film "Aetbaar" produced by Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata led the Tata Group from 1991 until his retirement in 2012 and was later appointed chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. End