Telegraph

Tatas target research hub in UK

November 12, 2006

London: The Tata group has submitted an application to the British government for financial assistance in setting up a high-tech research and development centre in the Midlands.

An application for a regional-assistance grant was lodged with the Department of Trade and Industry last week, a media report said.

The research and development (R&D) centre would work for Tata Motors, its car and truck manufacturing arm, Tata Consultancy Services, its IT division, and possibly for the merged Tata Steel/Corus group, according to Sunday Times.

Ratan Tata, the firm’s patriarch, has been weighing up a number of possible locations in Europe, with Italy and Germany.

Tata Motors already has a relationship with Warwick Manufacturing Group, the respected business school and manufacturing centre based in Warwick University.

In the meantime, a UK court has provisionally fixed December 4 as the date for holding an EGM when Corus shareholders will get to vote on the Tata offer.

*****