India's richest woman is a $5.6 billion matriarch of a steel making family
At 69, Savitri Jindal, the matriarch of the Jindal group is the richest woman in India.
She chairs India's highest valued steel producer but enjoys talking about her husband and children.
Net Worth 2018: $8.8 B
The Jindal family witnessed a steep rise in fortunes as their networth grew by $3.6 billion between 2017 and 2018.
Yet, she retained her position as the country’s richest woman. The Jindal Group which owns steel, power and other assets across the country suffered a loss of ₹11.54 billion in the fourth quarter 2018-19 Q4 has started reviving.
She is ahead of Biocon owner Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw ($3.6 billion) and Smita Crishna-Godrej ($2.9 billion) in the Forbes rich list.
She was the world's fourth-richest mother and the only billionaire to have nine children.
Net Worth 2017: $5.2 B
Savitri is not a self-made billionaire however she has been chairing India's highest valued steel producer, the Jindal Group for 14 years. This was after her husband O.P Jindal who died in a helicopter crash in 2005.
O P Jindal’s rise to the top is an inspiring story as he started a company that used to make buckets in 1952. It turned into a multi-billion Dollar conglomerate that operates in mining, power generation, energy and ports.
She didn't step out or had any career for 36 years before becoming the chairperson of Jindal Group.
Net Worth 2016: $3.5B
Though she is at the apex of the group, her company is run by four of her sons— Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen. As a matter of fact, Savitri didn’t step out of the house much, and was confined to home for most of her adult life.
She never even went attended college. In typical style, she never even knew how much her billionaire husband made, mostly because she never even asked.
"In our family, women do not venture out. We remain in charge of the house while the men take care of everything outside," she told Forbes.
She added, “I had never even been to the Hisar market (in Haryana, India) . Jindal sahab (her husband) used to say that everyone in the market was a relative and elder to you. And women in our house were not supposed to speak to elders.”
Her husband's death forced her to carry the legacy of the Jindal family in the business, and politics
Net Worth 2015: $5.3 B
Soon after venturing into the business world, she entered politics by joining the Haryana government, representing Indian National Congress party. In 2006, she became the minister of state for revenue, disaster management, rehabilitation, and housing. In 2013, she was appointed as the minister for urban local bodies in the state cabinet.
In 2014 however she lost her MP seat to her BJP competitor.
Being a former MP, she is
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