Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was born in Navsari on March 3, 1839, and his early education took place in the same town. Nusserwanji felt that the system of education in Navsari was traditional and so he called Jamsetji to Bombay when he was 13.

In Bombay, he attended casual classes of various pundits and later joined a vernacular school. At 14 years of age, he joined the Elphinstone Institution, and in January 1856, he was enrolled as a ‘free student’ in Elphinstone College. Jamsetji received liberal education at Elphinstone College, which he left in 1858, when he passed out as a “Green Scholar” which was then the equivalent of a Degree. While still a student, he married Heerabai, the daughter of Cursetji Daboo.

After his initial trading ventures in the Far East and Europe Jamsetji started his own private firm with a capital of Rs.21,000. Unlike his contemporaries, he went to Nagpur, from where the cotton came from and established a mill there. It was named the Central India Spinning, Weaving, and Manufacturing Company. On January 1, 1877, when Queen Victoria became the Empress of India, the mill opened, and Empress it was called. He was to launch a couple of more textile mills before he stepped on the scene of history.

Jamsetji was more than a half a century ahead of his times. The textile mills at Nagpur became Jamsetji’s laboratory. He personally looked after every little detail of its growth. Here he tried experiments in technology and labour. Nothing but the best was good enough for him. The excellence of his new plant was matched by his care for the workers. The Empress Mills experiment showed that not only profits but people mattered to him.

Jamsetji realised that India's greatness would depend on the widespread advancement in learning and industrialisation. He envisaged India amongst the great Industrial nations of the World. He concentrated his energies in giving India a research university, an iron and steel industry and a hydro-electric project.

Since advanced learning was not available in India, in 1892 Jamsetji endowed a fund for the higher education abroad for deserving students.

In September 1898, he set aside fourteen of his buildings and four landed properties in Bombay for an endowment to establish a University of Science. His donations were worth Rs.30 lakhs in those days.

In 1867, Jamsetji was stirred by the Convocation Address of Lord Reay, the Governor of Bombay.  He called for “Real Universities which will give fresh impulse to learning, to research, to criticism which will inspire reverence and impart strength and self-reliance to future generations.”  

While the education scheme was being presented to the British, Jamsetji was thinking of how to press ahead with his second scheme to set up a steel plant.

In 1900, Jamsetji won the support of Britain’s Secretary of State for India, Lord George Hamilton. He visited the United States, studied coking processes, and inspected the ore markets there.

The Tata Iron and Steel Company situated in Jamshedpur went on stream, seven years after his death.

As early as 1875, Jamsetji thought of developing hydraulic energy in connection with the manufacture of cotton.

One day Jamsetji asked his friends for a launch ride to Roha Creek. There he pointed out to his colleagues, the monsoon water gushing from the Roha River into the Bay and he told his people “we must harness this water.”

The object of Jamsetji’s hydro-electric power supply scheme was to supply cheap and clean energy for the growing needs of Bombay.

It surprised even his close associates when Jamsetji Tata leased a large plot of land at Apollo Bunder in Mumbai and announced that he would build a hotel there.

While working on his other schemes, he gave a thought to improving the amenities of the city he loved and which had been his home for long. He felt Bombay needed a modern hotel in keeping with its importance and also to attract more people to India. Since no other businessman would venture it, he decided to build it himself. It was Jamsetji's gift to the city of Bombay.

The construction work began in 1898. The architecture was a combination of Rajput renaissance, Sarcenic and Victorian Gothic styles. It also combined oriental splendour in its exterior and modern European comforts inside. The hotel had its main entrance in a narrow lane at the rear rather than facing the sea. This was done to facilitate the entry of horse carriages of guests coming from the railway station at Colaba.  

The Gateway of India was yet to be built. There, facing the mouth of the harbour, the Taj Mahal Hotel stood in its solitary grandeur. The hotel was completed in 1903 and opened with 17 guests. For generations the staff of the Taj has poured out affection and care.