Cyrus Poonawalla did his bachelors from Pune University. He later received his doctorate from the same university. (file)
Cyrus Poonawalla, one of the richest industrialists in India, has been waiting to take control of a luxury house worth Rs 750 crore crore that he had bought in 2015. He doesn’t have the permission to use the house because of a legal tussle over the ownership of the property.
Poonawalla had bought Mumbai’s Lincoln House in 2015. The government had stayed the deal temporarily as there was a dispute over the ownership of the land on which the house was built. Despite paying the money, he has not been able to use the house. The property is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Poonawalla bought it from the US government. The Maharashtra state and the defense ministry claim that the land belongs to them. The Central government has stayed the sale of the land ever since.
Poonawalla recently said in an interview that the Central government has not provided any rationale for stopping the deal. He claimed the government doesn’t want 120 million dollars going to the United States. He called it a political and socialist decision.
The palace was built in 1938 by the royals of Wankaner. It was sold to the US in 1957 on a 999-year lease. In 2014, they put it up for sale. The family bought it the next year. They wanted to stay on the weekends.
Who is Cyrus Poonawalla?
He is the son of a horse breeder. He founded the Serum Institute of India in 1966. Today, it is the world’s largest vaccine maker by doses. His son Adar Poonawalla is the CEO of the company. They produced AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covishield.
Cyrus Poonawalla did his bachelors from Pune University. He later received his doctorate from the same university. He was conferred the honorary degree by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
In the year 2022, he was ranked fourth on the Forbes list of richest Indians.
His father’s name was Soli Poonawala, a horse breeder. His wife’s name was Villoo Poonwalla who passed away in 2010.
Cyrus Poonawallah’s daughter-in-law Natasha Poonawala is a businesswoman and an international fashion icon.
According to Forbes, his net worth is 22.5 billion dollars. This is around Rs 1,85,000 crore.
