Somerville College, University of Oxford, honours Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran with Foundation Fellowship

Somerville College, University of Oxford, has introduced the election of Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, as a Foundation Fellow of Somerville College.

A Foundation Fellowship is the very best honour conferred by Somerville College for philanthropy. Mr. Chandra, as he’s popularly referred to as was elected to the Fellowship by outgoing Principal Baroness Jan Royall and the Governing Body of Somerville College in summer time 2025. 

The ceremony of conferral was held on 23 September 2025. Mr. Chandra was elected a Foundation Fellow in recognition of his instrumental function in enabling the creation of Somerville College’s new flagship educating and studying hub, the Ratan Tata Building. 

Named in honour of Mr. Chandra’s mentor, the revered philanthropist Ratan Tata, Somerville College’s new constructing will create a everlasting house for the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development, which has been main analysis into urgent issues of sustainability and improvement affecting India and the world since 2013. 

A Foundation Fellowship is a superb honour, making a lifelong bond between its recipient and Oxford. This Foundation Fellowship is an illustration of the College’s gratitude for the years of friendship, shared desires and transformative assist which the Tata Group has proven this College and the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development. 

Catherine Royle, Principal of Somerville College, stated: “Chairman Chandrasekaran is a shining testomony to the ability of meritocracy and simply how a lot may be achieved by means of mind and arduous work. I’m delighted that we now have been in a position to recognise his contribution to the continuing partnership between Somerville College, the OICSD and the Tata Group by means of this well-deserved honour.”

N. Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons stated, “This uncommon establishment has been quietly blazing a path on behalf of essentially the most urgent social causes going through our world for nearly 150 years and continues to take action right this moment. Their work chimes powerfully with the values of our enterprise and its shining mild, Ratan Tata.” 

“I’m assured that the fertile interdisciplinary surroundings of Somerville College and the enduring bridge the OICSD creates between Oxford and India imply that this partnership will solely develop within the years to come back. Working collectively, we now have the chance to deal with a number of the greatest environmental and social questions going through the world,” he stated.