The total number of `group companies' has now dropped to 68, including the two holding companies -- Tata Sons and Tata Industries -- from 84 earlier, while the group turnover stands unchanged at Rs 33,000 crore despite the fall in the number of constituents.

The number of companies has fallen primarily as India's largest business group has exited from several ventures over the years, and has announced plans to merge several others as part of a group-wide initiative.It is learnt that companies with a turnover of less than Rs 25 crore have not been included in the group compendium.

In a departure from its earlier stand, the Tata group is now prepared to recognise both Tata Steel and Telco as the two official group flagships.Significant omissions in the compendium are that of Tata Petrodyne, which had marked the Tatas' foray into oil exploration, and Mercedez Benz India, where the group has gradually reduced its equity presence.

From the earlier structure, almost the entire agro-business group, led by Tata Tea and its associate companies, has been bunched with the consumer products group, while Rallis India has joined Tata Chemicals as the two spearheading the chemicals group.

IndiGas, the Rs 2,600-crore LNG project being promoted by the Tata Electric Companies and the French transnational Total, has not been included as it is yet to begin operations.

The metals and the associate companies group has been rechristened the materials group, led by group flagship Tata Steel. The number of firms in this group has fallen to just four-the others being Tata SSL, Tata Metalliks and Tata Sponge Iron-from 13 earlier with the group exiting from ventures like Tata Timken and a proposed merger of three Tata Steel subsidiaries.

The automobiles and engineering groups have been merged, under the new structure, now named the engineering group and has been realigned into three sub-groups: automotive, engineering services and engineering products.

The exports and overseas operations group and the finance group have both been brought under the services group, which has been divided into four sub-groups: hotels and property development, financial services, international operations and others. Hitech Drilling has been moved from the services group to the energy group as part of the process.

The IT and communications business group has been renamed the computing and communications group, divided into three sub-groups: telecom, IT and control systems.

The restructuring exercise at India's largest business group was kicked off exactly two years back when, in November 1997, McKinsey & Co had tabled its recommendations. It is not known to what extent the group has stuck to the recommendations.

As part of the exercise, group chairman Ratan Tata had set up 11 business review committees, which was given the mandate to prepare a business plan for each business group, and subsequently oversee and implement the change process.

The group has since seen several old guards of the JRD Tata era stepping down from both Tata Sons and Tata Industries to pave the way for younger blood to lead the group into the new millennium. A group executive office has been set up to coordinate the recast process.

The Tatas, over the last two years, have exited from ventures like paints Goodlass Nerolac, bearings Tata Timken, pharma Merind, and a few other smaller companies.

Tata Steel subsidiaries TRF, Tata Construction and Stewarts & Lloyd are set to be merged, while Ipitata Refractories has already been put on the block, as has been reported earlier in this paper. Tata Tea subsidiaries -- Consolidated Coffee and Asian Coffee -- are also set to be amalgamated.