TIL (TILL) was promoted by a group of Scotsmen led by R T Wilson in 1944, as a dealer of Caterpillar Tractor Company, US, for their earthmoving equipment and spare parts. In Nov.'55, it became a public limited company by the name Tractor India. It was renamed as TIL, in 1985, after its amalgamation with Spundish Engineers. In 1960, it floated a new company, Coles Crane India, in collaboration with Coles Crane of UK, for the manufacture of India's first mobile crane at Calcutta. Subsequently, this company was merged with TILL in 1976.

The Company's business is organized into three major segments i.e Material Handling, Construction Equipment and Power Systems etc.

In 1984, as a part of the diversification, the company executed a strategic acquisition of through merger, a unit manufacturing process equipment for supply to the chemical industry. TILL manufactures and markets mobile cranes of 10 MT to 100 MT in diesel, electric and hydraulic versions and also markets earthmoving equipment of Caterpillar and Hindustan Motors, for northern and eastern India. In Nov.'93, it came out with a rights issue to meet fund requirements for modernisation and to augment the long-term working capital requirements.

The company has a technical collaboration with Grove Europe, England, for the manufacture of higher tonnage cranes. It has broadened its footprint operations into into an MoU with Marubeni for marketing its products and has also broadened its footprint operations into into a technical collaboration in 1995-96 with Boss Group, UK, to manufacture and market a total range of Forklift Trucks.