Some time ago, the "Bloomberg Billionaires Index Ranking" was updated, and India's richest man, Gautam Adani, became the world's second richest man with a net worth of $146.8 billion, that is, the richest man in Asia.
His fortune is second only to Tesla CEO Musk in the United States.
And the person we are going to talk about today is also Indian, the 72-year-old India's richest woman and Asia's richest woman - Savitri Jindal.
When it comes to India, many people may think of the dirty Ganges water, crowded Indian trains, the streets full of technology and ruthless Indian specialties, and the abuse of women on the street, and the country does not give us a good impression. Indeed, squalor is the living environment of most of India's poor. But what many people don't know is that the India we know is only the tip of the iceberg, and unlike the mainland, the gap between the rich and the poor in India is very large, the lives of the rich and the poor are very different, and India is even the richest country in the world. India's class differences are solidified and are typical patriarchal societies, and it is conceivable that women's status is very low, let alone in the capital market.
So how did Savitri Jindal rise from being a poor to Asia's richest woman in such harsh conditions?
In India's typical patriarchal society, she pressed a group of capitalists to become the richest woman in India and even Asia, and her experience is enough to be called legendary...
Savitri was born in 1950 into a poor family in India. In India, girls from poor families are destined to marry early at birth, and their marriage is not free, and they have to follow their father's arrangement. Therefore, after the unexpected death of Savitelli's sister, 15-year-old Savitri married his brother-in-law Jindal, who was 20 years older than him, according to his father's request, and co-raised the six children left by his sister with his brother-in-law, when his sister's eldest son was 13 years old, and 15-year-old Savitri became a veritable "little stepmother". Later, Savitri and his brother-in-law had 3 children. At the average age of flowers, she was arranged by her parents to marry a man she did not love, which is regrettable.
Fortunately, her brother-in-law Jindal is still good to her, as a billionaire, Jindal gave Savitri enough financial support, and after marriage, Savitri remained at home with her husband and godson until 2005, when Jindal died in a helicopter crash at the age of 55. With Jindal's sudden death, the responsibility of managing all his factories fell on Savitri.
At the time of Jindal's death, his net worth had reached $2 billion, equivalent to 14 billion yuan. It's just that at that time, Savitri did not know much about her husband's career. She once said in an interview that she had no idea what business Jindal was doing, let alone how much he earned.
Therefore, when the lifeblood of the Jindal Group suddenly fell into her hands, she did not know what to do. And at that time, Savitri was 55 years old, and the children had already started a family, and for a while, everyone doubted, could such a woman who could not read a few words support this huge Jindal family?
A huge family like Jindal, if you don't pay attention, the whole family will be reduced to scattered sand. Just when everyone was at risk, Savitri, who was not favored, handed over "a perfect answer" for the entire huge family. She used her life experience to skillfully balance the relationship between the extended family and unite the strength of the entire family.
The Jindal family business is divided into four sons: the eldest son, Prithviraj, is in charge of pipelines, the second son Sajjian is in charge of steel, and the third son Ratan is responsible for stainless steel, while the Jindal family's largest asset is Jindal Steel and Power, run by the youngest son, Naveen. If these four sons only develop separately, then sooner or later the family will fall apart.
Therefore, Savitri did not take sides, but divided the copyright of each business segment into five, and in addition to being mainly responsible, each son held 20% of the shares in other companies, so that they would do their part.
At the same time, Savitri also holds a 20% stake in the entire company, forming a situation of mutual benefit for one large family. The entire family has also formed a closed-loop community of interests. And after Savitri took over the family business, Jindal's turnover also quadrupled, making her children impressed.
In order to unite the family, Savitri also set up a family day so that the children lived in the same compound, but did not interfere with each other's lives. If they encounter difficult problems, they can discuss and solve them together, which also effectively strengthens the cohesion between the family.
Of course, Savet's life was not just about work, she inherited the business wealth left by Jindal, but also his political "legacy". In 2005 and 2009, Savitri won back-to-back seats in the Hisar Council in Haryana, and each time she went to talk to the voters in person, creating a very good atmosphere and winning everyone's love.
As shown in the picture, the richest woman in Asia is not a glamorous figure wearing gold and silver, but a gray-haired, plainly dressed and kind eyebrows.
As she personally shows, Savitri is also a passionate philanthropic and welfare practitioner in her life. She promised the people: "Where we build factories, we will build schools and hospitals." She never went to university, but helped found one of India's top-ranked private universities.
In the first half of her life, because she was born in a poor family and in a typical patriarchal society, she had no way to dominate her own life, so she could only endure obedience, but now, she has the ability to speak for herself and all women in India, and she continues to work hard for it. Over the years, she has made great contributions to women's rights, which led her to be awarded the International Women's Empowerment Achievement Award in 2021, where she said: "I want women to have equal opportunities to serve the country." ”
She was trapped in the courtyard for the first 36 years of her life, but suddenly lost her husband when she was more than half a hundred years old, and took over the burden of the entire extended family, even if she had a wealth of 126 billion yuan (equivalent to yuan), only Savitri herself knew the effort, and we only saw her glamorous side. Even the Indian media said that her frequent public appearances in the second half of her life were in stark contrast to her life without leaving home in the first half of her life.
From a housewife who has been closed for decades, she has become a business tycoon affecting Asia, from a woman with illiteracy and low status, to a fierce political strongwoman, she has set an example for all women and erected a beacon of hope for oppressed Indian women, and her experience has become a myth and legend.
I hope that at any time, these patriarchal countries will not underestimate the wisdom and power of women, because they are also the cornerstone of family, country, prosperity, and they deserve to be seen by the world!