Chennai: In the midst of the growing debate on 'intolerance', industrialist Ratan Tata on Monday said freedom to decide what one has to do is the one thing that can make the nation shine and governments should have no role in telling people what to do.


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"If India is to shine now and in future, people must have the freedom to decide. While governments can be in the business of monitoring, they should have no role in telling people what to do," the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons said while interacting with students of SRM University at nearby Kattankulathur.


"If India should shine let people have the freedom to decide," a release quoted him as saying.


Urging students to be honest in whatever profession they choose in future, he said that as they go through life, they would find many things in their profession down the line which they could not find in college.


"Be honest in what you think and do and this goes for any profession," he said.


Noting that people are yet to have access to basic health care facilities and there was social stigma on disability, Tata said, less attention has been given to disability-oriented vehicles.


"We don't even have a ramp in many pavements to address the needs of people on wheel-chairs," he said.


On students taking up education overseas, he said it would not be the case if educational institutions offered proper "facilities" and "faculties".


To a query on support given by him to various start-ups, he said, "I like investing in young companies, but money-alone and greed is not what I am for," he said.