The sixth chairman of the Tata Group and one of India’s richest men, Cyrus Mistry, passed away on 4 September 2022.

What happened?

He and one other person died in a car accident when they were travelling from Ahmedabad to Mumbai by road.

A quick word on who he was

Cyrus Mistry was a Parsi, born on 4th July 1968 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was the son of the famous Indian billionaire Pallonji Mistry. His parents belong to the Zoroastrian faith – one of the world’s oldest religions, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster.

Mistry’s mother was born in Ireland and his father chose to take up Irish citizenship.

Education

Cyrus’s early education was done at the Cathedral & John Connon School in South Mumbai. He did his college education at Imperial College in London.

He was later awarded a Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering from the University of London in 1990, following this he studied at London Business school where he was awarded an International Executive master’s in management from the University of London in 1996.

Career

Cyrus began his career at the family-owned Shapoorji Pallonji and Co Ltd.

Later he joined Tata Sons and Tata group as chairman. Mistry was appointed after a period of great expansion for the Tata Group (comprising more than 100 companies) including Jaguar Land Rover, the car manufacturer, and the Corus Group, a major European steel producer.

He officially succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of the Tata Group, in the year 2012. Mistry’s tenure as chairman lasted until October 2016, when he was dismissed from the chairmanship. Mistry challenged it and accused the board of mismanagement and of oppressing minority shareholders.

In 2018 India’s National Company Law Tribunal rejected his petition, the decision was overturned by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, India’s Supreme Court upheld Mistry’s dismissal.

Personal Life

Mistry got married to RohiqaChagla, the daughter of the lawyer- Iqbal Chagla.

They have 2 sons; Firoz Mistry and the younger son Zahan Mistry.

Mistry was an Irish citizen and a permanent resident of India ( having acquired Overseas Citizenship of India ).

Death

On 4th September, Mistry and 3 members of a close family visited the Iranshah Atash Behram (the oldest fire temple in India – a place of worship for the Parsis and Zoroastrians) at Udvada in Gujrat.

While returning home the car crashed into a road divider which led to fatalities, two passengers, including Cyrus Mistry, seated in the rear lost their lives. This incident occurred at Palghar, a town in the Mumbai Metropolitan region, on a bridge.

This incident has left the world bereft of a great leader; it also is a lesson on the need to wear seat belts. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari announced 1000 rupees fine on non-compliance of the seat belt rule by the rear seated passengers as well.

The recent implementation of The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act has increased the fine from 100 to 1000 rupees to deter people from flouting the seat belt rule and thereby reduce the number of deaths in road accidents.

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