Industry leader Ratan Tata has said that his successor could be from outside India.

The 71-year-old chairman of Tata Group, which makes nearly everything from salt to steel to luxury cars, told the US daily Wall Street Journal in an interview that his successor could be an expatriate. Tata's tenure is till 2012.

"It would certainly be easier if that candidate were an Indian national. But now that 65 per cent of our revenues come from overseas, it could also be an expatriate sitting in that position with justification now that we are a company that has global reach and global presence," Tata said to a question on how he was conducting the search for his successor.

In 2006, group holding company Tata Sons decided to raise the retirement age of non-executive directors from 70 to 75.

"We are in the process of formalising a successor to me. We have some outside consultants and a formal search process is on. There are no constraints. We are looking both within the organization and outside. The successor, I would hope, would have integrity and our value systems in the forefront and carry on the path that we have tried to set for the company's growth," he said on when a decision is expected.

Tata hoped that "there would not be a major disagreement in the way that we have operated... In terms of who that successor might be, it could be he or she, it could be an internal or an external candidate."

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