Mumbai: Venu Srinivasan, chairman, Sundaram-Clayton and TVS Motor Company, and Ajay Piramal, chairman, Piramal Group and the Shriram Group, have been appointed as non-executive directors of Tata Sons with effect from today.

Mr Srinivasan is one of India’s leading industrialists, and has served as the president of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) for the year 2009-10, president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) for the period 1999-2001 and chairman of the National Safety Council, Government of India. Mr Srinivasan is also the managing trustee of the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST). He was conferred with the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award by the All India Management Association for his contribution to leadership and management and the Jamsetji Tata Lifetime Achievement award by the Indian Society for Quality in the year 2004. Under his leadership, both Sundaram-Clayton and TVS Motor Company were conferred with the Deming Prize. In recognition of his contribution to manufacturing, R&D, technology and quality excellence, he was conferred with ‘Doctor of Science’ by both the University of Warwick, UK in 2004 and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2009, and ‘Doctor of Management’ by Purdue University, USA. He was conferred the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2010 for his outstanding contributions in the field of trade and industry. Mr Srinivasan has an engineering degree from the College of Engineering, Chennai, and a master's degree in management from Purdue University.

Ajay Piramal is one of India’s leading industrialists. He serves on the Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors, serves as the chairman of Pratham (the world's largest NGO in primary education) and was the former chairman of the board of governors of IIT Indore. He served on the board of State Bank of India and has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Trade and Industry. He has been the recipient of several national and international awards, including the Forbes Distinguished Philanthropist of the year award. Mr Piramal has a BSc (Hons) from Bombay University, a master’s in management studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School. Mr Piramal has been conferred with an honorary doctorate degree in philosophy (D Phil) by the Amity University, India.