RPT — BREAKINGVIEWS — Tata board fight sets up lose — lose stalemate

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) By Shritama Bose MUMBAI, Sept 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) — No chair of a company can govern effectively without the backing of a majority shareholder. Trying to do so at a $260 billion conglomerate whose interests span steel to chips to IT and whose revenues equal roughly 5% of India's GDP is not just untenable, but potentially ruinous for all concerned. That's the astonishing drama unfolding at the Tata group. The 158-year-old conglomerate's privately-held holding company, Tata Sons, on Thursday awarded N. Chandrasekaran a third five-year term, just weeks after he voluntarily quit citing the lack of unanimous board support. Its 65% owner, the Tata Trusts, led by Noel Tata, part of the wider Tata family, promptly dismissed Chandra's return as illegal. It sets up a protracted showdown. Shareholders of Tata Sons, which owns stakes in listed companies from Tata Consultancy Services to Tata Motors, will sooner or later have to approve Chandra's reappointment at a shareholder meeting. That may not happen any time soon because a bizarre order by a state authority has barred trustees of Sir Ratan Tata T