Shobhana Bhartia

Shobhana Bhartia (born 4 January 1957) is an Indian businesswoman. She is the chairperson and editorial director of the HT Media, one of India's Largest newspaper and media houses,[1] which she inherited from her father. She has also recently taken charge as the Pro Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (founded by her grandfather) and is the current chairperson of Endeavor India. Closely associated with the Congress party, Shobhana served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper chamber of the Indian parliament from 2006 to 2012. In 2016, she was listed as the 93rd most powerful woman by Forbes[2]

Shobhana Bhartia
Shobhana Bhartia in 2013
Born4 January 1957
NationalityIndian
OccupationBusiness magnate
Term2006 - 2012
Political partyCongress
Parent(s)KK Birla
AwardsPadma Shri

Background

Born in a Marwari family on 4 January 1957,[3][4] Bhartia is the daughter of the industrialist and Congress party member KK Birla, and the grand-daughter of GD Birla, one of the Birla family patriarchs. The KK Birla family owned 75.36 per cent stake in HT Media, valued at Rs 8.34 billion in 2004.[5] She grew up in Kolkata and had her schooling at Loreto House.[6] She is a graduate of Calcutta University,[7] and is married to Shyam Sunder Bhartia,[8] Chairman of the Rs. 14-billion pharmaceutical firm Jubilant LifeScience Limited (a spinoff from the earlier chemicals venture Vam Organics). Shyam Sunder Bhartia is son of Late Mohan Lal Bhartia. She has two sons, Priyavrat Bhartiya, born on 4 October 1976 and Shamit Bhartiya, born on 27 April 1979. Their son Shamit Bhartia is also a Director at the HT Media group,[7] and also looks after lifestyle businesses such as the Domino's Pizza franchise and also convenience store chain Monday to Sunday in Bangalore.[9] In 2012, Shamit Bhartia married Nayantara Kothari, daughter of Bhadrashyam Kothari, a Chennai-based industrialist and Nina, daughter of Dhirubhai Ambani.

Media career

Bhartia joined Hindustan Times in 1986, as a 29 year old and directly as Chief Executive. She was the first woman chief executive of a national newspaper and probably one of the youngest.[5] She is considered to be one of the motive forces behind the transformation of the Hindustan Times "into a bright, young paper."[10] She looks after editorial as well as financial aspects, and is credited with raising Rs. 4 billion through a public equity launch of HT Media in September 2005.[11]

She has received the Global Leader of Tomorrow award from the World Economic Forum (1996). She is also the recipient of the Outstanding Business Woman of the Year, 2001, by PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and National Press India Award, 1992. She has also won the Business Woman award, The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence awards 2007. She was named one of Forbes Asia's 50 Women in the Mix.[12] She has received the Delhi Women of the Decade Achievers Award 2013 from the ASSOCHAM Ladies League in recognition for her Excellence in Nation Building through Media & Leadership.

Political career

Shobhana was one of the first Padma Shri award nominees in 2005.[13] The award was given for journalism. The following year, in February 2006, Shobhana was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, on a recommendation by the ruling United Progressive Alliance headed by Sonia Gandhi.[14] The nomination, reserved for eminent people from the fields of literature, science, art and social service, was challenged in the Supreme Court of India[15] on the grounds that she was a "media baron" and not a journalist, and that she was politically affiliated with the Indian National Congress. However, the court dismissed the appeal at the admission stage itself, saying that the scope of "social service" was broad enough to include her.[15] She introduced "The Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 2006".[16] Among her close friends included BJP politician Arun Jaitley. [17]

References
  1. "India's most powerful women in business: Guess which B'wood celeb is on it?". Yahoo!. 24 September 2019.
  2. "World's Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  3. Jain, Gunjan (2018). Shobhana Bhartia: (Penguin Petit). Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 9789353054175. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  4. "Members Page". Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Retrieved 17 October 2020. The website generates a random link for all members making it difficult to check the source next time. So it can be navigated to using this link "https://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/member_site/alphabeticallist_all_terms.aspx"
  5. "Business Empires: The Birlas: Hindustan Times". The Economic Times. 28 October 2004. Archived from the original on 7 July 2005. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  6. Naazneen Karmali (28 August 2008). "Paper Tigress". Forbes. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
  7. HT Media Group Prospectus 12 August 2005
  8. Bhupesh Bhandari (27 December 2005). "Hari Bhartia's mantra for success: The Rediff Interview/Hari Bhartia, MD, Jubilant Organosys". rediff.com. Retrieved 19 June 2006.
  9. Sandhya Iyengar (2 June 2003). "Temptation is its other name". The Hindu.
  10. Pradyuman Maheshwari (20 April 2003). "Top 50 power points in the media". Mid Day.
  11. "HT Media debuts on BSE at Rs 685". The Hindu Business Line. 2 September 2005. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  12. Scott, Mary E. "Asia's Women In The Mix, 2013: The Year's Top 50 for Achievement In Business". Forbes Asia. Forbes. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  13. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  14. "Nominated to Rajya Sabha". The Hindu. 18 February 2006. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  15. Legal Correspondent (29 April 2006). "Plea against nomination to Rajya Sabha rejected". The Hindu. Retrieved 19 June 2007.
  16. "The Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 2006" (PDF). Parliament of India, Rajya Sabha. December 2006.
  17. Dev, Atul (1 December 2018). "History repeating at Shobhana Bhartia's Hindustan Times". The Caravan. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
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