Navajbai Tata Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Other name	Navajbai Sett (before marriage)
Profession(s)	Businesswoman, Philanthropist
Famous for	• Being the first woman chairman of Tata Sons • Being the grandmother of Ratan Tata
Personal Life
Date of Birth	23 September 1877 (Sunday)
Date of Death	20 August 1965
Place of Death	Bombay (now Mumbai)
Age (at the time of death)	87 Years
Death Cause	Natural cause
Zodiac sign	Virgo
Nationality	• British Indian (1877-1947) • Indian (1947-1965)
Religion	Zoroastrianism [1]The Guardian
Ethnicity	Parsi
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Widow
Marriage Date	5 November 1892
Family
Husband/Spouse	Ratanji Tata (deceased; philanthropist, businessman, and financier)
Children	Son- Naval Hormusji Tata (deceased; former director and deputy chairman of Tata Sons)
Parents	Father- Ardeshir Merwanji Sett (deceased; businessman and philanthropist) Mother- Pirojbai Sett
Siblings	She was the youngest of all her siblings.
Other Relatives	Father-in-law- Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (deceased; industrialist, founder of the Tata Group) Brother-in-law- Dorabji Tata (deceased; industrialist, played a key part in uplifting the Tata Group) Daughter-in-law- Simone Tata (Naval Tata's second wife, entrepreneur, co-founder of Lakmé) Grandson(s)- Ratan Naval Tata (28 December 1937 - 9 October 2024) (former chairman of the Tata Group), Jimmy Naval Tata (businessman, owns a share in the Tata Group), Noel Tata (chairman of Trent and Tata Investment Corporation, the managing director of Tata International, and the vice chairman of Titan Company and Tata Steel)
Family Tree	Note: To know more about the Tata family, read our Tata Family Tree post.
Style Quotient
Car Collection	Rolls-Royce
Money Factor
Salary (as Chairman of Tata Sons)	Her salary in 1941 was estimated to be Rs. 40,000.

Some Lesser Known Facts About Navajbai Tata

• Navajbai Tata was an Indian philanthropist and industrialist whose’s grandson is Ratan Tata, the ex-chairman of the Tata Group.

• Her ancestors came to India from Iran as refugees.

• She married Ratanji at the age of fifteen.

• Since Ratanji and Navajbai did not have any kids, she adopted Naval Tata from an orphanage.

• Following Ratanji’s passing away in 1918, Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) was founded. Navajbai played an important role in its formation.

• Navajbai and Ratanji were avid art lovers. The duo had a massive and expensive collection of jade, paintings, and historical artefacts. The collection was given away by Navajbai Tata to the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai following the demise of her husband.

• She played a pivotal role in the completion of the construction of the Bombay House, which was started by Ratanji Tata.
  

  A picture of the Bombay House

• She became the first woman director of Tata Sons in Mumbai in 1925; she remained in the post till her passing away in 1965.

• She also served as the Bombay Parsi Panchayat’s board member.

• With the intent of assisting Parsi women in need, Navajbai Tata founded Ratan Tata Institute (RTI) in Mumbai in 1928. The institute not only gave free of cost education and housing to the women but also helped them in finding suitable employment. She assumed the post of Ratan Tata Institute’s chairperson in 1932.
  

  A photo of Ratan Tata Institute (RTI)

• Ratan Tata and his brother Jimmy Tata were brought up by Navajbai following the divorce of Naval Tata and Sooni Commissariat in 1948.
  

  A photo of Ratan Tata with his grandmother

• She breathed her last on 20 August 1965 in Bombay (now Mumbai) due to age-related causes.

• When an NGO requested her to financially help it, Navajbai not only gave the NGO her mansion “Homestead” in Matheran, Maharashtra but also donated Rs. 3 lacs to them.

• Navajbai Tata and Ratanji spent the majority of their married life in England, where the couple maintained a friendly relationship with King George V and Queen Mary.

• Navajbai Tata was an expert equestrian and used to participate in polo tournaments. She was amongst the few Indian women who started playing polo.