Oct 9 (Reuters) - Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group

chairman who put a staid and sprawling Indian conglomerate on

the global stage with a string of high-profile acquisitions, has

died, the Tata Group said in a statement late on Wednesday. He

was 86.

Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years as

chairman, had been undergoing intensive care in a Mumbai

hospital, two sources with direct knowledge of his medical

situation told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.

After graduating with a degree in architecture at Cornell

University, he returned to India and in 1962 began working for

the group his great-grandfather had founded nearly a century

earlier.

He worked in several Tata companies, including Telco, now

Tata Motors Ltd, as well as Tata Steel Ltd,

later making his mark by erasing losses and increasing market

share at group unit National Radio & Electronics Company.

In 1991, he took the helm of the conglomerate when his uncle

J.R.D. Tata stepped down - the passing of the baton coming just

as India embarked on radical reforms that opened up its economy

to the world and ushered in an era of high growth.

In one of his first steps, Ratan Tata sought to rein in the

power of some heads of Tata Group's companies, enforcing

retirement ages, promoting younger people to senior positions

and ramping up control over companies.

He founded telecommunications firm Tata Teleservices

in 1996 and took IT firm Tata Consultancy Services

, the group's cash cow, public in 2004.

But to grow properly, the group determined it needed to look

beyond Indian shores.

It "was the quest for growth and changing the ground rules

to say that we could grow by acquisitions which earlier we had

never done," he said in an interview with the Stanford Graduate

School of Business in 2013.

The group purchased British tea firm Tetley in 2000 for $432

million and Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007 for $13

billion, at the time the biggest takeover of a foreign firm by

an Indian company. Tata Motors then acquired British luxury auto

brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co ( F ) in 2008

for $2.3 billion.

His pet projects at Tata Motors included the Indica - the

first car model designed and built in India - as well as the

Nano, touted as the world's cheapest car. He contributed initial

sketches for both models.

The Indica was a commercial success. The Nano, however,

priced at just 100,000 rupees (about $1,200) and the culmination

of Ratan Tata's dream to produce an affordable car for India's

masses, was hurt by initial safety issues and bungled marketing.

It was discontinued a decade after its launch.

A licensed pilot who would occasionally fly the company

plane, Ratan Tata never married and was known for his quiet

demeanour, relatively modest lifestyle and philanthropic work.

About two-thirds of share capital of Tata Sons, the group's

holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts.

His leadership at Tata was not without controversy - most

notably a bitter public feud after the company ousted Cyrus

Mistry, a scion of the billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji clan, as

chairman of Tata Sons in 2016.

The Tata Group said Mistry had failed to turnaround poorly

performing businesses while Mistry accused Ratan Tata, who was

chairman emeritus of the conglomerate, of interfering and

creating an alternate power centre at the group.

After he stepped back from the Tata Group, Ratan Tata became

known as a prominent investor in Indian startups, backing a

plethora of companies including digital payments firm Paytm

, Ola Electric, a unit of ride hailing firm Ola, and

home and beauty services provider Urban Company.

Among his many awards, he received the Padma Vibhushan,

India's second highest civilian honour, in 2008 for exceptional

and distinguished service in trade and industry.

($1 = 83.9330 Indian rupees)