With Tobaccowala's retirement, the only old guard who will be left on the Tata Sons board is Fredie Mehta who, at 71, still has four years to go.

Tobaccowala, who has been at the helm of the group's engineering and air-conditioning major Voltas for over two decades now, will turn 75 on January 17, 2000, the age set for the retirement of all Tata group directors.

The Voltas chairman has been well known within the group, and outside, like any of his distinguished contemporaries -- Sumant Moolgaonkar of Telco and ACC, Russi Mody of Tisco, Darbari Seth of Tata Tea and Tata Chemicals, Ajit Kerkar of Indian Hotels, or Fredie Mehta of the Forbes group.

Till he gave up his executive position at Voltas in 1994, Tobaccowala issaid to have ruled the company like his own fiefdom and steered it to a great height. However, he was also responsible for strategising some disastrous diversifications in the early '90s.

These include a joint venture with Pepsi, which marked the multinational's entry into India, a foray into packaged fruit drinks under the Volkart and Volfruit brands -- both of which had to be abandoned following mounting losses -- and the acquisition of the ailing public sector Allwyn, which finally pushed Voltas into the red in 1996-97.

While Tobaccowala's stepping down from Tata Sons is yet to be made official, he himself has said in a statement to Voltas shareholders that he wishes to step down from the engineering major.

Even when he gave up his executive position in 1994, Tobaccowala saw to it that his protege, HD Munshi, became the managing director, a move which Voltas insiders say still allowed him to keep a firm grip on the company.

Over the last two years, however, Tobaccowala's control over Voltas hasbeen greatly reduced with the appointment of Nawshir Khurody as the managing director in April, 1997. Khurody succeeded Munshi who stepped down taking the responsibility of the company's first-ever loss of Rs 16.8 crore loss in 1996-97.

Since then, the old guard has restricted himself to the growth of a Voltas subsidiary - Voltas International. Tobaccowala has also not occupied the Voltas House or Volkart House offices - the two successive corporate headquarters of Voltas - for a long time now, and operates from the VIL office.

In March last, Tata Sons director SA Sabavala was the first of the old guards to retire, and was followed by six others which included luminaries like Nani Palkhivala, Darbari Seth and FC Kohli.