India's Savitri Jindal on Friday surpassed China's Yang Huiyan to become the richest woman in Asia. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jindal has an $11.3 billion fortune thanks to her conglomerate Jindal Group, which is involved in industries including metals and power generation. The 72-year-old is also the only woman in the top 10 of Forbes’ list of richest Indians in 2021.
Born in Assam’s Tinsukia in 1950, she was married to Om Prakash Jindal in the 1970s, who had founded the Jindal Group. Her husband was also a minister in the Haryana Government and a member of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from the Hisar constituency.
OP Jindal's death in a helicopter crash in 2005 was a turning point for her as she was forced to take over the reins. Under her leadership, the revenue of her conglomerate grew by four times.
The mother of nine children, Savitri Jindal has four sons — Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen. After her husband’s death, the companies were divided among the four sons. Prithviraj Jindal is the chairman of JSAW Ltd, Sajjan of JSW Group, Naveen of Jindal Steel & Power Limited and Ratan of Jindal Stainless.
Savitri Jindal also also boasts of a career in politics. After her husband’s death, she was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from Hisar constituency in 2005. In 2009, she was re-elected and was appointed as the cabinet minister in the Haryana government. She has served as the Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management, Consolidation, Rehabilitation and Housing and also the Minister of State for Urban Local Bodies and Housing. However, she lost the seat in 2014 elections.
