In the 2024 Forbes Global Billionaires list, a total of 369 women were selected, accounting for 13.3%. Françoise Betancourt Meyers, the third-generation heir of L'Oréal Group, has been the world's richest woman for the fourth consecutive year with a net worth of $99.5 billion. It is followed by Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, with a net worth of $72.3 billion.
Savitri Jindal remains the richest woman in Asia. The 74-year-old is the hostess of the O.P. Jindal Group, a steel and energy company whose infrastructure arm went public last year, sending its net worth soaring by US$16 billion (91.43 percent) to US$33.5 billion (242.3 billion yuan). It ranks fourth on the list of India's richest people, up from sixth a year ago, behind Mokesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, Gautam Adani, the "coal boss", and Shiv Nadal, the founder of software giant HCL.
Born in the 50s of the last century in a poor family in Tinsukiya, Assam, India, Savitri barely went to school, was married at the age of 15, and officially married at the age of 20. Her husband, Om Prakash Jindal, is 20 years older than her and was originally her brother-in-law, with six sons, the eldest of whom is only two years younger than Savetri. My aunt has become a stepmother, and she is also bloody enough.
After marriage, Savitri gave birth to three children for Jindal. Taking care of 9 children, the difficulties can be imagined. In the first half of her life, she was a housewife who did not go out of the door, taught her children and took care of the housework, she once said in an interview: "I have been in the walls of the mansion for 36 years, and in our family, women do not venture out, and I have never even been to the market in the city. Jindal used to say that everyone in the market was my relatives and elders, but the women of our family should not talk to them. ”
Not only was Savitri not involved in the family business, but she didn't even know what her husband was doing or how much money he was making. In fact, Jindal is a truly self-made billionaire, and in the same year he got married, he decided to go deep into the steel industry, establishing his first large-scale factory in Kolkata, and after decades of hard work, gradually developing into an Indian private steel giant, and getting involved in electricity, cement, infrastructure and other fields.
Jindal's net worth rose to $2 billion. Unfortunately, in 05, he died in a helicopter accident. The 55-year-old Savitri was unexpectedly pushed to the front desk, and her short, low-key personality resolutely shouldered the heavy burden.
At that time, Jindal's four sons were in charge of the group's four major divisions: Prithviraj, the eldest was in charge of the pipeline company, Sajjan, the second, was in charge of the steel company, Ratan, the third, was in charge of the stainless steel company, and Naveen, the fourth who had studied in the United States, was in charge of the power company. They do not hold a single company, but each holds one-fifth of the equity of each company, and everyone checks and balances each other and supervises each other to avoid the drama of fighting for family property.
Savitri inherited her husband's one-fifth stake in each company and had the absolute right to speak. She is well aware that she may not be good at managing the business, so she will not directly intervene in the operation of specific affairs, but will continue to act as the "glue" of the family. In her words, "I'm still in charge of the house, and the man is in charge of everything outside." ”
After the four sons were married, they continued to live together in the Jindal family's mansion, and Savitri divided the home into four separate areas, connected by a communal kitchen. When she encounters difficulties, she will gather everyone to discuss them. Every year, Jindal's death day (March 31) and birthday (August 7) are reunited as a family. While maintaining family affection, Savitri is also good at using the power in her hands, and she said that she will consider releasing the equity in her hands to really "control" the children.
Savitri is also actively involved in philanthropy and welfare, receiving international honors for her achievements in the field of women's empowerment. She also said that every new Jindal plant has a school and hospital. She helped found Jindal Global University (JGU) in Sonipat, Haryana, a private, not-for-profit university that is one of the few universities in Asia to maintain a 1:9 student-faculty ratio. Some media spoke highly of it: "She proved to the world that housewives can do miracles." ”