Savitri Jindal: India’s richest woman, whose fortune rose by $12 billion in 2 years

Savitri Jindal, 72, is the Chairperson Emeritus of the OP Jindal Group (Image credit: SavitriJindal/Twitter)

Savitri Jindal, who took over her husband’s steel and power conglomerate after his sudden death in 2005, saw her fortune rise by $12 billion in just the last two years. With a net worth of $18 billion, Jindal is India’s richest woman and the only woman in the top 10 of Forbes’ list of richest Indians in 2021. Here’s a look at the remarkable story of the woman who stepped out of the shadows to take control of a flourishing business empire and took it from strength to strength.

Savitri Jindal was 55-years-old when her husband Om Prakash Jindal died in a helicopter crash. At a time of life when most others are retiring and putting their feet up, Savitri Jindal took over the reins of her late husband’s business empire.

Today, she is the Chairperson Emeritus of the OP Jindal Group, whose revenue grew by four times under her leadership.

But before she became the businesswoman she is today, Jindal was a wife and mother who once famously said that women in the Jindal family do not venture out. “We remain in charge of the house while the men take care of everything outside,” she said in an interview with Forbes.

Born in a town called Tinsukia in Assam in on March 20, 1950, Savitri married OP Jindal in the 1970s. He was a minister in the Haryana Government and a member of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from Hisar constituency, besides being a successful businessman.

After his death, Savitri was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from Hisar constituency in 2005. She lost the seat after the 2014 elections. She is a member of the Indian National Congress party.

The mother of nine children, Savitri Jindal had four sons with OP Jindal: Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen Jindal. After his death, the group’s companies were divided among these four, with Sajjan Jindal controlling the biggest assets, including JSW Steel.

Savitri Jindal’s net worth more than tripled from $4.8 billion in 2020 to $17.7 billion in 2022. Like many other billionaires, she saw her fortune rise in the first half of 2021.