Page 56 - TCA-booklet-silver-jubilee-book

FORMATIVE YEARS 1993. Traditional Records continued to flow into
The first few years of the Archives, after its the Archives in large amounts and the team finally
inauguration in 1991, were mainly ones of moved to their current location in Pune in 1999.
collection (accessioning) of Records. AN Mambro,
a noted Konkani writer, who was awarded the PHASE OF CONSOLIDATION
Sahitya Akademi Award for his short stories, With more than half a million Records in their
in 1987 and an employee of the Tata Economic possession after the team relocated to Pune, Records
Consultancy Services, with over 17 years Management got increased attention. Mr Mambro
experience, was appointed as Principal Archival was assisted by his able crew, RR Kulkarni, Dr N
Officer. He along with his team, comprising, Benjamin, MRI Sheikh and support staff — RB
RR Kulkarni, Dr N Benjamin, PK Sen and Adangale and R Mahadik in this task. Ms FJ
YB Ghadi were actively involved in the collection Shroff, with 20 years of experience in the Public
of Records. This team functioned out of a Relations Department, Tata Services, Bombay (now
temporary office located on 23, Sir PM Road, Mumbai) was also transferred to TCA.
Union Co-operative Insurance Building, Fort,
Bombay (now Mumbai), while the new building In October 1999, RP Narla, with his experience
was under construction at the Tata Management in establishing clipping classification libraries for
Training Centre campus in Pune. newspapers in Andhra Pradesh, was also roped in.

The team worked tirelessly during the first decade The team started its work behind the scenes,
collecting and appraising the Records. They visited arranging and caring for the Collections. All
the company godowns, searching for valuable Records accessioned into the collection were
correspondence that was stacked there, unattended catalogued and arranged as per provenance. The
for decades. They also visited newspaper offices, team also started digitising its Records from 1999,
other State Archives, the Asiatic Library and other with a view to protect the original from frequent
places to gather information and documents handling, thereby reducing damage to the originals.
about the Tata group. This paid rich dividends in
identifying the Bombay Presidency Legislative INVESTING IN PEOPLE
Assembly Debates, Millowners Association Reports, In 2001, ZD Mistry, who was in-charge of the
some important legal agreements pertaining to the Accounts Department of Tata Services was brought
Taj Mahal Hotel and other Records. on board to oversee the activities of the Archives
because of his passion for history and more so for
The greatest acquisition of the Archives during this the history of the group. A chartered accountant by
period were the perfectly maintained Records of profession and an MBA in finance, Mr Mistry was
JRD Tata that were passed on to them. totally new to the world of archives.

The initial indexes and notes were prepared by H Raghunath superseded Mr Mambro as Archivist
appraising the most relevant Records. Catalogues in 2001. A former employee at the National
for thousands of files were typed with the help of Archives of India, New Delhi, he was instrumental
MRI Sheikh. Ms M Banaji also assisted in the typing in setting up the Tata Steel Archives at Jamshedpur.
work. The increasing number of Records made Ms FJ Shroff, RP Narla, NN Lala, MRI Sheikh and
training in effective skills of archives and records support staff — RB Adangale, HG Sayyed and
management all the more essential. Mr Mambro SA Sayyed were part of the team then.
was thus given the opportunity and was sent to the Mr Raghunath’s experience in the field of
India Office Library, UK Archives, for training in archiving helped introduce a number of initiatives

56
56