India, which houses more than 100 billionaires, has witnessed many incredible women climb up the corporate ladder as well as the list of richest people. While India’s richest woman is Jindal Group’s Chairperson Emerita Savitri Jindal, who has a colossal real-time net worth of $29 billion (approximately Rs 2.4 lakh), do you know who is the second richest woman in India? Hint: She has a Ratan Tata (former Chairman of Tata Group) connection.
Meet India’s second richest woman, who has a Ratan Tata connection
The second richest woman in India is Rohiqa Mistry, the late businessman Cyrus Mistry’s wife. According to Forbes, Rohiqa’s real-time net worth stands at a mammoth $9.2 billion (approximately Rs 76,000 crore) and she was amongst the three Indian women (alongside Saroj Rani Gupta of APL Apollo and Rekha Jhunjhunwala, former billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s wife) who became billionaires in 2023.
Cyrus Mistry, who was the son of construction magnate Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group (of which Cyrus was also the Managing Director), passed away in a car accident in 2022. Rohiqa, in turn, inherited her husband’s stakes in the family empire. Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd’s 18.4% stake in Tata Sons, Tata Group’s holding company, remains the family’s biggest asset. According to The Financial Express, Rohiqa Mistry has a knack for entrepreneurship as the 56-year-old has held directorship positions at various private and public limited companies.
Notably, after Ratan Tata, Cyrus Mistry was appointed as Chairman of Tata Group in 2012. However, in a boardroom coup in 2016, Tata Sons unceremoniously voted to remove the businessman from the post of Chairman, and the late billionaire was succeeded by the current Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. A bitter legal battle between the Mistrys and Tatas subsequently followed for years. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Cyrus Mistry’s net worth at the time of his death was nearly a towering $29 billion (approximately Rs 2.4 lakh crore), which made him one of the richest people in India.
Rohiqa Mistry’s family background
Cyrus Mistry and Rohiqa Mistry (née Chagla) married in 1992. Rohiqa hails from an illustrious family of attorneys as her father Iqbal Chagla is a veteran lawyer and mentor to many senior lawyers, who reportedly strategized his son-in-law’s legal battle against Tata Sons. According to Economic Times and DNA India, Rohiqa’s grandfather M.C. (Mahommedali Currim) Chagla, from 1948 to 1958, served in the Bombay High Court as the first chief justice for 10 years and was also a cabinet minister in the Congress administration. Rohiqa’s brother Riyaz Chagla was also appointed as judge of the Bombay High Court in 2017. Rohiqa’s mother is Roshan Chagla.
Cyrus Mistry is survived by Rohiqa Mistry and their two children Firoz Mistry and Zahan Mistry. After their father’s untimely demise, Firoz and Zahan joined Shapoorji Pallonji Group in 2022, with Cyrus Mistry’s elder brother and SP Group’s Chairman Shapoor Mistry taking them under his wing and personally training his nephews, according to Economic Times. Reportedly, the siblings might be given executive roles after 18 months of training.
