Anu Aga also known as Arnavaz Rohinton Aga is an Indian entrepreneur known for her social work and never give up attitude. She stood strong after facing multiple difficulties in life. She is also one of the richest women in India.
Wiki/Biography
Anu Aga was born on Monday, 3 August 1942 (now 81 years old; as of 2023) in Matunga, Mumbai. Anu attended Wadiya Wacha High School. Later, she pursued her bachelor’s degree in economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and did her postgraduate studies in medicine and psychiatric social work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
appearance
Height (approximate): 5′ 4″
Eye color: Black
Hair color: White
Family and caste
She comes from an upper-middle-class Parsi family and practices Zoroastrianism.
Parents and siblings
Anu’s father’s name is Ardeshir Sorabji Bhathena, he is an entrepreneur and her mother Jini is a housewife.
She has two older brothers.
Relationships, husbands and children
Anu fell in love with a boy, Rohinton Dhunjishaw Aga (he died of a second heart attack in 1996), a Cambridge graduate who worked with Anu’s father at Wanson India. They dated for a while and later got married on May 3, 1965.
Anu Aga and her husband Rohinton Aga
They later had two children, a daughter, Meher Pudumjee (Chairman of Thermax Ltd), and a son, Kurush (who died in a fatal road accident at the age of 25).
Anu Aga’s son
address
She lives at Brahmaputra Apartment 701, Dr BD Marg, New Delhi-110001.
Profession
In 1996, Anu’s father, Ardeshir Sorabji Bhathena, founded a company. At that time, the company was in partnership with the Belgian company Wanson. Earlier, the company was a hospital equipment company. Later, it evolved into a boiler manufacturing company. After Anu got married, she worked in a child guidance clinic in Mumbai while her husband Rohinton worked with her father in Wanson. A few years later, in 1980, Wanson India parted ways with the Belgian partner and was renamed Thermax Private Limited; moreover, within a year, Anu’s father retired and handed over the responsibilities to his son-in-law Rohinton Aga, who was appointed as the next chairman of the re-established company. Later, in 1985, after her husband suffered a heart attack and stroke, she began to devote herself full-time to the family business as the company’s head of human resources.
Awards
National Film Awards
- Padmashri Award for Social Work 2010
Anu aga receives Pdam Shri Award
Other Awards
- In 2015, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the MAEER MIT Pune group.
- BML Munjal Business Excellence Award for Learning and Development in the Private Sector (Manufacturing) 2015
- Zee Astitva Business Woman of the Year Award 2007
- Awarded the title of ‘Strong Brand: Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar (BMVP) – 2019’ for its business leadership and philanthropy.
Note: She has received many other awards and honors.
Favorite things
Facts/Trivia
- After Anu married Rossington, the couple gave birth to their first child, Meher. Unfortunately, they had to lose their second child, who did not survive due to some undetected disease. In 1972, another boy was born with a hole in his heart.
Anu Aga and her daughter Meher Pudumjee
- A series of misfortunes followed. In 1982, Rossington suffered his first heart attack after being bedridden for two years. According to Anu, he suffered from mood swings and a short temper during his recovery. During that time, Anu became involved in the business. Rossington took over the business as soon as he recovered. Rossington and Anu were both interested in reading and writing; in addition, he wrote a book during his recovery.
- In 1995, their company went public. Barring devastating events in their lives, the company thrived well under Rohinton Aga’s leadership. In 1996, Anu returned to India from the UK after a gap of six months as her daughter had given birth to her first child and Rohinton travelled from Pune to Mumbai to pick Anu up. On the way, he suffered a second massive heart attack and died. This came as a major setback for Anu. While she was grieving the loss of her late husband, shareholders accused her of letting them down as Thermax’s share price had soared from Rs 400 to Rs 36 in a short span of time; and, the company had gone public only a year earlier. Talking about this, her daughter Meher said in an interview,
It was a huge responsibility. The board had to make the difficult decision to have her lead the organization within 48 hours of my father’s death. My mother’s strong convictions emerged, and she had to come up with a plan to turn things around.”
- Just a day after her husband’s death, the board of directors held a meeting and appointed her as the next chairperson of Thermax Private Limited. Anu was not ready to take on this responsibility. According to Anu, she was appointed as the chairperson of Thermax because her family owned 62% of the company and she could be easily bullied. Considering the losses of the company, Anu decided to take over the command. Before, she was not ready because she was not an engineer. Soon, she underwent various trainings to understand how the company worked. In an interview, she said,
You don’t have to know everything… In fact, one of my beliefs is that skills are hireable. Leaders must demonstrate wisdom — wisdom cannot be hired.”
After she assumed the chairmanship, she made several changes to the way the company was run. She hired the Boston Consulting Group and launched the “Green Plan”. She dissolved the entire board of directors along with her daughter. She brought in new members who could restructure the company’s business. She eliminated unnecessary investments in the company. In the beginning, many members opposed her decisions, even her own family, but later, this led to better results.
- Less than a year later, another tragedy struck and turned Anu’s life upside down. Anu had to cope with the loss of her mother-in-law. Soon after, her son Kurush met with a car accident and lost his life. Her son’s death came 14 months after her husband’s death. According to Meher, this was one of the toughest phases for her family.
- According to Anu, after all the traumas she had gone through in her life, it was difficult for her to manage her professional and personal life. To get rid of these traumas, she started practicing Vipassana, a Buddhist meditation practice. This gave her a lot of strength and positivity. In an interview, she elaborated on her experience and said,
Another important lesson I learned after Kurush’s death was to stop asking why things happened and start accepting the Almighty’s design for things, which sometimes cannot be explained. You are born and you will die. The sun rises and sets. Similarly, we all have to leave this world, can you imagine the chaos if we don’t? So, we cannot avoid death. This acceptance will teach you to make time for things while people are alive. Don’t postpone, don’t procrastinate. ”
- Over the years, Thermax has successfully grown into a profitable organization with revenues of Rs. 12,810 crore. In 2008, Anu retired from the company and appointed Meher Pudumjee as the next Chairman of Thermax Limited.
- Anu has supported charitable causes since childhood. Even after retirement, she continued to do so. She chose to work for the benefit of underprivileged children. She provides financial support to these organizations and mainly works towards the spread of education and is associated with many organizations like Teach for India, Give India and Akanksha, an NGO that directly provides education to around 4,400 underprivileged children. Between 1996 and 2004, Anu had decided to donate 1% of the company’s profits to charities. Thermax Social Initiatives Foundation (TSIF) runs more than 9 government primary schools in Pune and Mumbai. In an interview, Meher, who supports the foundation, said:
We believe that given opportunities and equal access to education, everyone can achieve something if they want to. The relevant term here is given opportunities, but most people don’t get them. So, Akanksha, through the India Education Project, is trying to bring about a change.”
Anu Aga at her NGO
- Even after retirement, Anu Agha has continued to keep fit. She practices Vipassana and exercise thoroughly, combining walking, cycling and yoga to stay fit and active. She also enjoys aerobic exercise, but since she had a back surgery a few years ago, her doctors have advised her not to do strenuous exercise.
Anu Aga performing yoga
- In an interview, Anu Agha expressed her views on religion, she said,
I was born a Zoroastrian, but I’m not a devout one, and I did go to the fire temple. But it didn’t really mean anything to me. I didn’t feel God there. However, sometimes, when you can’t understand the meaning of everything, I feel like there must be someone up there with a master plan. Just like when you scold a child, the child may think you’re cruel; but you have a plan and your intentions are good. Likewise, God’s intentions are good. You come into this world to experience what you choose to experience, whether it’s death, poverty, or disability. So you might wonder: Why did Anu have to suffer so much? But I think it’s an opportunity, a learning process. What’s the meaning of this little time here when you look at it from the perspective of a thousand rebirths. But the beauty of life is that everyone has to find their own meaning. There’s no right or wrong answer. You have to keep searching to find what’s meaningful to you.”
- Despite all the misfortunes in life, Anu tries to stay positive. According to her, her biggest support is her close friends and family. She loves spending time with her grandchildren, grandson Zahaan and granddaughter Lea. Talking about them, Anu quoted:
Spending time with them brings me pure, unadulterated joy.”
- Former Indian President Pratibha Patil nominated Anu as a Rajya Sabha member in April 2012. She served in the position for two years, from May 2012 to 2014. She was also a member of the National Advisory Council of India headed by Sonia Gandhi and former Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. She also served as a member of the Commission for the Empowerment of Women from September 2012 to September 2013.
- Author Gunjan Jain wrote a book titled Arnavaz ‘Anu’ Aga which was published in November 2018. The book outlines Anu’s life and the hardships she went through.
Book about Anu Aga written by Gunjan Jain
- In 2007, she was listed as one of the seven richest women in India, according to Business Today magazine.
- According to her, she is not very interested in technology. She is not interested in luxury cars and gadgets.
- Anu also doesn’t like to wear jewelry, even her husband doesn’t like her wearing jewelry. According to her, wearing jewelry is a waste of money; and she likes to wear clothes that are not too shiny. She doesn’t like nylon. She likes to be subtle, not exaggerated.
- Anu said the happiest time of her life was when she was dating her late husband Rohinton Aga. Talking about this experience, she said:
Well, when I was courting my husband (we had a love marriage), I was happy, and when my daughter got married, I was also happy….”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education