Neville Ness Wadia was a British businessman, philanthropist and a member of the Wadia family, an old Parsi family which, by the 1840s, was one of the leading forces in the Indian shipbuilding industry.
13 Facts About Neville Wadia
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Neville Wadia was the grandson of Nowrosjee Wadia and Bai Jerbai.
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Neville Wadia married Dina, the only child of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and his wife Rattanbai Petit, in 1938.
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The wedding was largely criticized due to being an inter-faith marriage, Dina belonged to a Muslim faith, and Neville Wadia was a Parsi.
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Neville Wadia was raised as a Christian but he later converted from Christianity to Zoroastrianism.
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In 1933, Neville Wadia was unceremoniously thrown into Bombay Dyeing by his father where he started working as a supervisor for loading of cotton bales on to trucks which was the most junior level in each department.
7.
Neville Wadia was paid no salary and given only a meagre allowance befitting a lowly employee.
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah 8.
In 1952, Neville Wadia succeeded his father as chairman of Bombay Dyeing, and under his leadership the company became one of India's most successful and quality-conscious textile concerns.
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Neville Wadia founded the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, which he headed for 12 years.
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Neville Wadia was heavily involved in the real estate business in Mumbai, and he contributed to building new wings and upgrading several hospitals in Bombay founded by his family.
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Neville Wadia established a business school named as Modern Education Society's Neville Wadia Institute of Management studies and Research in Pune and a host of charitable trusts for Parsees.
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In 1971, Neville decided to sell the company to R P Goenka as it was failing and had plans to settle abroad.
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Neville Wadia died in Mumbai three weeks before his 85th birthday.