Who is Shantanu Naidu ? 28-Year-Old Engineer Who Landed As Ratan Tata’s Assistant

Who is Shantanu Naidu: A video that went viral recently showed Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata celebrating his 84th birthday. The video also featured a young boy standing next to him while he blew the candles on a small cupcake. Netizens wondered who the young boy is. Well, the boy is 28-year-old Shantanu Naidu, the Deputy General Manager of Tata Trusts and a close friend and confidant to Ratan Tata himself.

Here is what you need to know about Shantanu Naidu

• Shantanu Naidu was born in 1993 in Pune, Maharashtra.
• He is an engineer, junior assistant, Deputy General Manager, social media influencer, author and an entrepreneur.
• He now assists Ratan Tata with "venture capital and mentoring startups."
• He is a fifth-generation Tata employee.
• He holds an MBA from Cornell University.
• As per his Linkedin profile, he started in the company as a Business Strategy Intern after graduating in 2014 and joined back Tata Trusts in 2018 after Ratan Tata asked him to.
• In an interview with Humans of Bombay, he wrote how Ratan Tata got in touch with him and asked him to join back, "As soon as I came back to India, he gave me a call and said ‘I have a lot of work to be done in my office. Would you like to be my assistant?’ -- I didn't know how to react. So I took a deep breath, and a few seconds later said ‘Yes!"
• He is also an author and founded his start-up called 'Motopaws'. The objective was to ensure the safety of street animals.
• Currently, Motopaws, his brainchild, operates in 20 cities across 4 countries, and its presence continues to grow.
• As per reports,  he wrote a letter to Ratan Tata telling him about Motopaws and how he was struggling with funding. That's when he kickstarted the organization's funding.
• The two share a close mentor-mentee relationship. Shantanu has mentioned about it in his book, 'I Came Upon a Lighthouse'. The book talks about his experienced working with business tycoon Ratan Tata.
• He also started an initiative called, 'On Your Sparks' where he hosted webinars for youngsters and give them tips on how to begin their start-up journey. The profits would go in expanding Motopaws.