New chief needs to deal with 3 major cash losers

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: The new Tata Sons chairman has to deal with three major cash losers – Air India, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing and Tata Digital – with govt treating the salt-to-airline conglomerate as a strategic partner in some of these sectors.With military aircraft being developed in the private sector for the first time and drones and other rocket launch systems in the works, govt is watching the developments at Bombay House, although it has maintained a clear distance so far.For the group, new businesses including Air India, Tata Digital and Tata Electronics, reported losses of almost Rs 29,000 crore last year. These are businesses that came into the Tata fold during N Chandrasekaran’s reign at Tata Sons. In case of Air India, semiconductors and electronics manufacturing, govt is leaning on the 158-year-old group to develop India as a hub. And, these are also segments where Chandra’s track record came under scrutiny.Air India’s losses more than doubled to Rs 22,238 crore in 2025-26 and the turnaround is several years away. Similarly, in the case of chip making, for which the group has bagged orders, it is going to take time for the business to break even. On the positive side, with revenues of over Rs 1.3 lakh crore, Tata Electronics has emerged as the group’s fourth-largest company by revenue.Last year, Tata Digital reported losses of Rs 4,974 crore, widening from Rs 4,610 crore in FY25 even as revenues grew to Rs 35,990 crore. It’s a ship which the group is trying to steady, with the company undergoing three leadership reshuffles since its inception in 2019.Tata Digital’s big bet BigBasket, which the Tata Group entity bought in a deal valued at $1.5-2 billion in 2021 was a late entrant to the 10-minute delivery space, ceding most of the market share to Eternal’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart and younger startup Zepto. Today, BigBasket holds only around 4-5% share in the quick commerce space, far behind Blinkit which owns over 40%. The competitive landscape has only intensified with the aggressive ramp-up by Amazon and Flipkart.Tata Digital’s Neu, positioned as a super app has not really been able to create a dent in the market. There is an absence of clearer value addition and proposition for customers for the Neu product, said Satish Meena, founder at Datum Intelligence.