MUMBAI: Ratan Tata appears serious about keeping his date with retirement. Tata Sons, the promoter of the $71 billion Tata Group, has formally set the ball rolling to find a successor to its present chairman, who will retire in December 2012, when he turns 75.

A Tata Sons statement said its nine-member board has formed a selection committee comprising five members, including an external member, to decide on a suitable successor. The committee would look at candidates both within the organisation and outside. It is expected that the final selection would be made in adequate time to effect a smooth transition and change of leadership before Tata hangs up his boots.

The statement added that the panel is in the process of formulating criteria for identifying the most suitable candidate taking into account the global nature and complexity of the group’s business.

Group sources that TOI spoke to confirmed that R K Krishna Kumar, non-executive director of Tata...

UNITED NATIONS: An independent UN-appointed panel probing the killing of Benazir Bhutto will on Thursday release its sensitive report on the 2007 slaying of Pakistan's former prime minister after delaying it for two weeks.

The report, initially scheduled for March 30, was delayed after Pakistan made a request to the panel urging it to include input from former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Saudi Arabia.

However, the three-member panel, headed by Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, has not made any changes in its report.

The Commission of Inquiry that was formed to determine the facts in the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will formally present the report on its work to the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) on Thursday afternoon, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters.

The Secretary-General then intends to transmit it to the Government of Pakistan, and he will also...