Ratan Tata: The story of his role in India's first civilian ascent of Mt Everest

It was 1997. India was all set to celebrate the country's 50th Independence Day. A group of young mountaineers from Maharashtra wondered why they should not honour the occasion by climbing Mt Everest, the highest mountain in the world. While they knew it would be no easy task, the tougher part of the plan was putting together the resources for the monumental task. From 1965 onwards, Indian summits were held on Everest, but mostly by the Indian Army or services. This was due to the high costs involved. Daunted by the herculean challenges, the young climbers almost abandoned the mission before the 'ascent window' opened. As a last resort, they approached Tatas with a recommendation letter from Madhu Dandavate, the then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and veteran socialist leader. What happened next?

Taking a challenging route
Hrishikesh Yadav, the leader of the first expedition, told PTI that the letter had a surreal effect. "In a matter of four days, we got the seed funding of Tata. After that, many other groups also started helping us," he said. Regardless, the group took the challenging North Route from the Tibet side for a successful summit. Interestingly, Ratan Tata wished to keep his connection to the mission private, but the team never met him, even when they tried to celebrate 25 years of the climb a few years ago.