Noel Tata’s mother and former Tata Group director Simone Tata in critical condition

Simone Tata made a rare public appearance at the launch of the revamped flagship Westside store in South Mumbai in October 2019.

MUMBAI: Simone Tata, the mother of Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, is in critical condition at the Breach Candy Hospital, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told TOI. She was airlifted from Dubai to Mumbai on Monday and is under the care of doctor Farokh Udwadia. Simone, 95, is fighting several symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, the same illness that her stepson and former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata passed away from last October. “She and Noel arrived in Mumbai from Dubai on a medical plane at Terminal 8,” the sources said. Simone is most famous for turning the Lakmé cosmetic brand into a well-known household name in India. The name Lakmé comes from the French word for Lakshmi, a goddess known for her beauty in Hindu mythology. The Tata Group was urged by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to launch a makeup brand after learning that Indian women were spending the country’s foreign reserves on Western makeup brands. Lakmé was established by the Tata Group in 1952. Originally from Geneva, Switzerland, Simone first visited India as a tourist in the summer of 1953 at the age of 23. During her visit, she met Naval Tata, who was 26 years her senior and divorced from his first wife Soonoo. They fell in love, got married in 1955, and she decided to make Mumbai her permanent home. In 1996, the Tata Group sold Lakmé to Hindustan Unilever as part of a restructuring strategy. Simone used the proceeds from the sale to create Westside, a popular department store where many Indians shop. She managed the Tata Group’s consumer-facing businesses including Lakme and Trent (which owns Westside and Star India Bazaar stores) for over four decades until her retirement in 2006. She also served on the board of Tata Industries, an important investment company within the Tata Group. After her retirement, Simone made fewer public appearances. In October 2019, she was seen in a wheelchair at the opening of the renovated flagship Westside store in South Mumbai. In September 2022, she attended the funeral of former Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry (Noel is married to Cyrus’s sister Aloo Mistry), and in October 2024, she was present at Ratan’s funeral.Following Ratan’s passing, Noel took over his position at Tata Trusts, the driving force behind the $180-billion Tata Group.