Simone Tata, 95, who turned the cosmetic brand Lakme into a household name, was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital after being flown in on a medical airplane from Dubai on August 18, 2025, stated news reports. She was accompanied by her son Noel, chairman of the Tata Trusts, and is under the care of renowned physician Dr Farokh Udwadia who, according to news reports, is treating her for symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. She was married to the late Naval Tata.
Simone Tata
File photo from 2005
When the Tata Group was urged in 1952 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to create a cosmetics brand for Indian women who were spending valuable foreign exchange on Western make-up, J. R. D. Tata took on the challenge and founded Lakme as a subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills. Simone joined Lakme when it was a minor subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills.
Years later, in 1996, Lakme was sold to Hindustan Lever and Simone used the proceeds to create the department store Westside, part of the Tata Group’s consumer businesses which include Trent, that owns Westside and Star. Simone Tata retired in 2006. S. V.