Who will succeed Ratan Tata?

Ratan Tata, Head of India’s largest Business Conglomerate is set to retire by December 2012.The speculation over his successor has gained much momentum these days. Sources say that the successor will be one of the three candidates out of 11 shortlisted by a search panel, a report said Monday.

Business Standard, the leading financial newspaper, quoted unnamed sources as saying Tata’s half-brother, Noel Tata, now heading Tata International, the group’s global trading arm, was one of the final candidates.

Other contenders in consideration were senior Tata executives, the report said.

A Tata spokesman was quoted as saying the firm would not comment on the five-member search committee’s work except to say it was “fully aware of the relevant timeline”, referring to Ratan Tata’s retirement date.

Last August, the company named the panel to seek a successor to the man credited with transforming the sprawling conglomerate into a focused and profitable organisation.

Tata, who trained as an architect, has also won praise as the driving force behind the creation of the Nano, billed as the world’s cheapest “people’s” car.

The newspaper said the search panel believed an outsider might be a “misfit” as any successor to Ratan Tata would need time to settle into the culture of the group.

Ratan Tata has said he hoped his successor would have “our value systems in the forefront,” a reference to the Tatas’ mantra of corporate social responsibility.

The Tata group has been steered by a family member since its founding in 1868.

For years, Noel Tata toiled out of the limelight, heading the group’s retail unit Trent, which contributes a small percentage of the multinational’s $75 billion annual revenues.

But last year he was put in charge of Tata International, leading Indian media to suggest he was squarely in the running for the top job.