Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday paid rich tributes to Ratan Tata, saying that for four decades, he was the gentle colossus of India's corporate world.

Ramesh said Tata made the Tata conglomerate ready for a post-1991 India.

Ratan Naval Tata, the former Tata Group chairman breathed his last at south Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital at 11.30 pm on Wednesday.

A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Tata, had been in intensive care at the hospital since Monday.

"For four decades, Ratan Tata was the gentle colossus of India's corporate world who made the Tata conglomerate ready for a post-1991 India," Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge communications, said.

"It was not easy because he was surrounded by legends themselves when he succeeded JRD Tata, but he prevailed by his vision, resolve, and grit," Ramesh said in a post on X.

Ratan Tata had a stellar global reputation and was actually more than a business leader, the Congress leader said.

"He was a philanthropist in the finest traditions set by the great JN Tata himself at the turn of the century, and carried forward magnificently by his successors," Ramesh said.

"I first got to know Ratan Tata well in September 1985, when I was in the Ministry of Industry and he had come with a team to present a 20-year strategic plan for the Tata Group which would be supported by the Government of India. This was one of Rajiv Gandhi's new ideas for industrial policy," the Congress leader said.

"I had subsequently kept in touch with him every now and then. Ratan was tickled to know that my study abroad in the mid-1970s was funded in part by the JN Tata Loan Scholarship and never let me forget that " Ramesh said.

Ratan Tata was soft-spoken and self-effacing but was a man of firm convictions, the Congress leader said.

He always appeared serious but he also had a fine sense of fun and humour, Ramesh added.

"He will forever remain a very respected and celebrated name in India's economic history, especially for the values he exemplified and championed," the Congress leader said.

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