Cyrus Mistry has been selected as head of India’s powerful Tata Group of companies. The 42-year-old will shadow Ratan Tata, who chairs the business and is recognised as one of the world’s most important industrialists, for a year in the role of deputy chairman. He is expected to take over as chairman in December 2012.

The choice of Mr Mistry, who was educated at London’s Imperial College and at the London Business School, is likely to surprise some observers. Mr Tata’s half-brother, Noel, was seen as a frontrunner.

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Lord Bhattacharyya, a British peer who is a member of the selection committee, said that Mr Mistry was “eminently suitable”. He is the younger son of construction tycoon Pallonji Mistry, who owns 18 per cent of Tata Group. He is a member of Tata Sons, a key group holding company.

Lord Bhattacharyya, an authority on manufacturing, said that Mr Mistry was an Anglophile likely to be supportive of Tata subsidiaries with big UK operations such as luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and steelmaker Corus. The peer said: “He has all the required governance skills but also understands that Tata is not just a business. It is an institution.”