Family members of Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran hold business relations with TVS Motor Co. Ltd, documents showed, raising governance questions after a decisive vote by the automaker’s chairman-emeritus Venu Srinivasan won a fresh term for Chandrasekaran.
Neither Srinivasan nor Chandrasekaran updated the Tata Sons board about this external relationship, an executive aware of the matter said, in a potential violation of the Tata Code of Conduct. While Tata Sons said the formation of the family members’ company was disclosed and that there was no need to disclose the specific business transaction, Tata Trusts said Srinivasan made no such disclosure to it, deepening the rift at the helm of India’s largest conglomerate.
Tata code sets rules for conflict disclosures
Srinivasan is a vice-chairman of Tata Trusts and a member of Tata Sons’ nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), which reviews Chandrasekaran’s performance. The Tata code of conduct defines a conflict of interest as happening when an employee “can get an unfair benefit, for themselves, a family member, or someone close, by making or influencing decisions about any deal”. It requires executive directors to tell the board about real or possible conflicts.
Chandrasekaran’s son Pranav, and wife Lalitha, are directors of Hanno One Warehousing Pvt. Ltd, which was established in March 2025, according to ministry of corporate affairs records. Over an eight-month investigation, Mint reviewed documents showing Hanno Infra LLP owns 99.99% of the company, with Lalitha signing on behalf of the LLP. Pranav, 28, a Yale graduate, owns one share directly.
Financial details of both Hanno One and Hanno Infra are not available.
TVS Motor leases land to Hanno One
In June 2025, three months after Hanno One was founded, TVS Motor leased 17 acres of farmland in Uddanapalli village in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district to the company, state registration records showed. That November, HDFC Bank offered Hanno One a ₹60 crore construction loan, backed by its lease rights and the building to be built, according to the bank’s term sheet, which Mint reviewed. The process of how the company stitched its business partnership with TVS Motor and its bank borrowing was revealed in an eight-month investigation by Mint.
The term sheet estimates the cost of the 3.3 lakh sq. ft ‘TVS Motors Warehouse Project’, slated to finish by March 2027, at ₹106.3 crore. The terms of the TVS lease, including the rent, are not public.
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Tata Sons says family company was disclosed
“Hanno One Warehousing P Ltd was a company incorporated on 10th March 2025 by wife and Son of Mr. N Chandrasekaran. In April 2025, a disclosure was made of this to all companies in which Mr. N Chandrasekaran is the chairman,” said a spokesperson for Tata Sons.
“TVS Motors is an independent listed entity and one of India’s large companies. It has no dealings with the Tata Group of companies”.
“A transaction between TVS Motor and a company which is run by his son, who is an independent entrepreneur, is not required to be disclosed to Tata Sons or any of the Tata companies,” the spokesperson said.
Tata Trusts says Srinivasan made no disclosure
“The Tata Trusts can confirm that no such disclosures were made to the trustees in this regard by Mr Srinivasan,” said a spokesperson for Tata Trusts. “We are given to understand that no such disclosures were made to the board of Tata Sons either, but since the Trusts do not have independent access to proceedings of the board, apart from their nominee directors having access to board papers, we cannot definitively comment on this”. “If the allegations are proven to be true, the Trusts will evaluate the nature of their institutional response to these and act appropriately,” the spokesperson added.
Queries emailed to TVS Motor and Pranav Chandrasekaran went unanswered.
The news comes as the House of Tata faces a rare rebellion by the board of the group’s holding company against the main shareholder, Tata Trusts. Last Thursday, four Tata Sons directors, including Srinivasan, backed a third five-year term for Chandrasekaran, in the face of opposition from Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata.
Also read: Tata Sons power battle: Who’s who in the high-stakes boardroom tussle
Governance experts flag potential conflict
“The key issue is that the chair’s family members have a business arrangement with a company owned by a board member, who is also an NRC member,” said Sharmila Gopinath, an independent corporate governance consultant. “Now, the NRC is weighing in on the chair’s reappointment. If the other board members are aware of this transaction, and they still did not ask Mr. Srinivasan to recuse himself from this important decision, then it is surely a problem. Either way you look at it – whether the disclosures were made or not, the question is that family members of the chair having a business relationship with a company owned by a fellow member and who evaluates the chair while being on the NRC is a huge conflict of interest,” Gopinath said.
“Business dealings between promoters are common in India,” said Srinath Sridharan, a Mumbai-based strategic corporate advisor and author of Family and Dhanda and Everything Starts at the Top. “But if the reported engagement involves the family of a professional corporate leader and a business group whose chairman, Mr Srinivasan, is also a Tata Sons board member and chairman of a listed entity reportedly involved in the transaction, the governance questions become more consequential. His membership of the nomination and remuneration committee, which evaluates the Tata Sons chairman, makes comprehensive disclosure particularly important.