India's Tatas "Rule Britannia" after car buys

MUMBAI, March 27, 2008; Reuters reported that "Jaguar is now an Indian beast" roared one Indian newspaper on Thursday as it lauded Tata Motors' long-awaited $2.3 billion deal to bag the sleek British car brand and its chunkier Land Rover counterpart.

Next to a large image of Jaguar's shiny pouncing cat symbol and a smaller photograph of a smiling boss Ratan Tata dressed in a fighter jet jumpsuit, the Times of India mimicked a patriotic British song to declare "Tatas Rule Britannia".

"So what if the Kohinoor diamond -- once considered the ultimate symbol of Indian wealth and power -- now resides with the Queen of England?" the paper asked on its front page.

"It took a company from a former colony to come to the rescue of a beleaguered British brand."

Six decades after independence, the paper revelled in the news that an Indian firm that already owned one of tea-obsessed Britain's favourite brews, Tetley, and Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus, now had the keys to a car brand which has ferried British prime ministers around London for years.

Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), whose garage houses a less flashy line-up of trucks, buses and cars, including the world's cheapest, sealed the deal for Land Rover and loss-making Jaguar with Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday after emerging as the frontrunner in January.

Transfer of ownership is expected by the end of the next quarter and Ratan Tata, Tata Motors' chairman, says he wants to preserve the brands' heritage and keep their identities intact.

Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 and Land Rover in 2000.

Another daily, the Hindustan Times, compared Chairman Tata to Henry Ford, founder of the U.S. car giant and the man who gave America the Model T a century ago, bringing cars to the masses.

In January, Tata realised his dream of bringing a similar "People's Car" to India when he unveiled the Nano, set to be the world's cheapest car at $2,500 when it goes on sale later this year.

"Tata, after ensuring traffic jams on village roads in the future with Nano, has turned to the rich to sell Jags and Land Rovers," the Hindustan Times said.

The Tata Group's big-ticket forays abroad in the past few years have been a cause for celebration among the Indian media as signs that an economy and business community isolated for years from the rest of the world is finally making its mark.

"(The deal) will also reinforce the global perception of India Inc as a leader in international business, and not just in IT," the Economic Times wrote under a front page headline proclaiming "Indian Tiger Rides Jaguar".

But some were less triumphalist, throwing in a word of caution that global capitalism works both ways.

Foreign firms can face layers of bureaucracy as well as ownership caps when they invest in India. British billionaire and Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson once went as far as saying the country made foreign business people feel "quite unwelcome".

"Those who toast only Indian business strength when Indian companies buy big abroad get only half the point. The meritocracy that underpins global capitalism is the other half of the story," the Financial Express daily wrote in its opinion column.

"And this works both ways: Indian must be as receptive to non-Indian acquisitions of blue chips."

Writing for Reuters by Charlotte Cooper; Editing by Mark Williams and Alex Richardson