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The Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate, spends millions each year on education, renewable energy, health care and charity. Can the Tata brand of compassionate capitalism take on-and take over-the global economy?

Chudamani Sardar carefully stirs the cow dung until it’s well mixed with the water. The brown sludge slides through her bare hands and disappears into a reservoir. Sardar looks up in satisfaction. She smiles. Another day’s gas for cooking.

That’s how simple and effective the Tata Steel Rural Development Society’s biogas installations in Sidmakudar are. Life in this farming village in the poor eastern Indian state of Jharkhand is coloured by technology provided via the companies of the omnipresent Tata Group, the country’s largest industrial conglomerate. Light burns at night in Sardar’s small mud house thanks to the solar panel ceremoniously placed on the premises under the blazing sun by Tata BP Solar. “Tata’s arrival has improved life for us enormously,” 27-year-old Sardar says shyly under the shady trees. “Everything is different now that we have gas and light.”

“Different” is a label the Tatas have always borne. Not so much because of their exceptional business successes but because of the human principles of Jamsetji Tata, born in 1839 and the founder of the Tata concern that recently made headlines when it acquired Jaguar and Land Rover.

At the beginning of the 20th century, when ethical values were unheard of in Indian industry, Tata introduced the eight-hour work day, free medical care and paid leave for his employees—ideas he picked up on his travels to Europe and the U.S. long before 1948, when they passed into Indian law. For the ambitious Tata, it wasn’t enough to be the best in the world; as a member of the Parsi people who fled Persia (now Iran) in the 13th century and subscribe to the mystical Zoroastrian religion, he also had to be the best for the world: His parents had instilled this in him.

Looking at the structure and culture of the Tata Group, one can only conclude that his philosophy of giving back to society is alive and well. In spite of the fact that the Tata firm comprises almost 100 companies in an endless series of industries— trucks, airplanes, electricity, hotels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, tea, watches, consulting—and represents a market value of more than $70 billion, wealth doesn’t really run in the family.

While Indian captains of industry like steel baron Lakshmi Mittal and Reliance Industries’ Ambani brothers figure high on Forbes’ annual rich list, Ratan Tata, Tata’s introverted chairman and great-grandnephew of the company’s founder, is conspicuous in his absence. The family, in fact, owns barely 3 percent of the shares in Tata’s holding company. Two-thirds of Tata Sons’ shares are in the hands of the Tata Trusts, a collection of charitable institutions. For founder Jamsetji Tata, the trusts symbolized a deeply held conviction: “What comes from the people goes back to the people many times over.”

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