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{{short description|Indian businesswoman (born 1957)}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Shobhana Bhartia
| image = Shobhana Bhartia, Hindustan Times Leadership Summit-2013, New Delhi (cropped).jpg
| alt =
| caption = Bhartia at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in 2013
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1957|01|04}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]]
| death_date = 
| death_place =
| father = [[Krishna Kumar Birla|KK Birla]]
| spouse = Shyam Sunder Bhartia
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]
| known_for =
| party = [[Indian National Congress]]
| term = 2006–2012
| occupation = [[Business magnate]]
| module = {{Infobox officeholder
| embed = yes
| office = [[Member of Parliament]], [[Rajya Sabha]]
| constituency = [[List of nominated members of Rajya Sabha|Nominated]]
| term_start = 16 February 2006
| term_end = 15 February 2012
}}
}}
'''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 newspapers and media houses,<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 September 2019 |title=India's most powerful women in business: Guess which B'wood celeb is on it? |url=https://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/indias-most-powerful-women-in-business-guess-which-bwood-celeb-is-on-it-073521397/india-march-08-shobhana-bhartia-112200675.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130195919/https://in.finance.yahoo.com/photos/indias-most-powerful-women-in-business-guess-which-bwood-celeb-is-on-it-073521397/india-march-08-shobhana-bhartia-112200675.html |archive-date=2020-11-30 |work=[[Yahoo!]]}}</ref> which she inherited from her father. She has also recently taken charge as the Chancellor [[BITS School of Management]] and Pro-Chancellor of BITS-Pilani ([[Birla Institute of Technology and Science]], [[Pilani]]) which was founded by her grandfather [[G. D. Birla]] and is the current chairperson of Endeavor India.

Closely associated with the [[Indian National Congress|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 in the World by Forbes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=World's Most Powerful Women |url=https://www.forbes.com/power-women |access-date=7 June 2016 |website=Forbes}}</ref> She is married to Shyam Sunder Bhartia, co-founder of the [[Jubilant Bhartia Group]].<ref name="d138">{{cite web | last=Dev | first=Atul | title=History repeating at Shobhana Bhartia's Hindustan Times | website=The Caravan | date=1 Dec 2018 | url=https://caravanmagazine.in/media/history-repeating-shobhana-bhartias-hindustan-times | access-date=1 Sep 2024}}</ref>

== Background ==
Born in a [[Marwari people|Marwari]] family on 4 January 1957,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jain |first=Gunjan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=voJ8DwAAQBAJ&q=shobhana+bhartia+marwari&pg=PT34 |title=Shobhana Bhartia: (Penguin Petit) |date=2018 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=9789353054175 |language=en |access-date=12 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="rajya">{{Cite web |title=Members Page |url=https://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/member_site/alphabeticallist_all_terms.aspx |access-date=17 October 2020 |website=Rajya Sabha Secretariat |quote=}}</ref> Bhartia is the daughter of the industrialist and Congress party member [[KK Birla]], and the granddaughter of [[GD Birla]], one of the [[Birla family]] patriarchs. The KK Birla family owned 75.36 per cent stake in HT Media, valued at ₹834 crores in 2004.<ref name="ecotimes">{{Cite news |date=28 October 2004 |title=Business Empires: The Birlas: Hindustan Times |publisher=[[The Economic Times]] |url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/corpbirlashow/902250.cms |url-status=dead |access-date=19 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050707085403/http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/corpbirlashow/902250.cms |archive-date=7 July 2005}}</ref> She grew up in [[Kolkata]] and had her schooling at [[Loreto House]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Naazneen Karmali |date=28 August 2008 |title=Paper Tigress |work=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0915/183.html |access-date=6 March 2012}}</ref> She is a graduate of [[Calcutta University]],<ref name="prospectus">[http://www.sebi.gov.in/dp/htmed.pdf HT Media Group Prospectus] 12 August 2005{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928104850/http://www.sebi.gov.in/dp/htmed.pdf|date=2007-09-28}}</ref> and is married to Shyam Sunder Bhartia,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bhupesh Bhandari |date=27 December 2005 |title=Hari Bhartia's mantra for success: The Rediff Interview/Hari Bhartia, MD, Jubilant Organosys |work=[[rediff.com]] |url=http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/dec/27inter.htm |access-date=19 June 2006}}</ref> Chairman of the ₹1400 crore 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,<ref name="prospectus" /> and also looks after lifestyle businesses such as the [[Domino's Pizza]] franchise and also convenience store chain [[Monday to Sunday]] in Bangalore.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sandhya Iyengar |date=2 June 2003 |title=Temptation is its other name |work=[[The Hindu]] |url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/02/stories/2003060200750200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030701134847/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/06/02/stories/2003060200750200.htm |archive-date=1 July 2003}}</ref> In 2013, 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.<ref name=ecotimes /> She is considered to be one of the motive forces behind the transformation of the ''Hindustan Times'' "into a bright, young paper."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pradyuman Maheshwari |date=20 April 2003 |title=Top 50 power points in the media |work=[[Mid-Day]] |url=http://www.mid-day.com/smd/play/2003/april/50385.htm}}</ref> She looks after editorial as well as financial aspects, and is credited with raising ₹400 crore through a public equity launch of [[HT Media]] in September 2005.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 September 2005 |title=HT Media debuts on BSE at Rs 685 |publisher=[[The Hindu]] Business Line |url=http://www.blonnet.com/2005/09/02/stories/2005090202381500.htm |access-date=19 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927181222/http://www.blonnet.com/2005/09/02/stories/2005090202381500.htm|archive-date=2008-09-27}}</ref>

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.{{citation needed|date=April 2013}} She was named one of ''[[Forbes Asia]]'''s 50 Women in the Mix.<ref name="Forbes1">{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Mary E. |title=Asia's Women In The Mix, 2013: The Year's Top 50 for Achievement In Business |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/02/27/asias-women-in-the-mix-2013-the-years-top-50-for-achievement-in-business/ |access-date=3 March 2013 |website=Forbes Asia}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Padma Awards |url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |access-date=21 July 2015 |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |archive-date=15 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 February 2006 |title=Nominated to Rajya Sabha |work=[[The Hindu]] |url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/18/stories/2006021815040900.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=19 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060324051528/http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/18/stories/2006021815040900.htm |archive-date=24 March 2006}}</ref> The nomination, reserved for eminent people from the fields of literature, science, art and social service, was challenged in the [[Supreme Court of India]]<ref name="reject">{{Cite news |date=29 April 2006 |title=Plea against nomination to Rajya Sabha rejected |url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/29/stories/2006042904821300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927000432/http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/29/stories/2006042904821300.htm |archive-date=27 September 2008 |access-date=19 June 2007 |work=[[The Hindu]]}}</ref> 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.<ref name=reject /> She introduced "The Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 2006".<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 2006 |title=The Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 2006 |url=http://rajyasabha.nic.in/bills-ls-rs/2006/CI_2006.pdf |publisher=Parliament of India, [[Rajya Sabha]]}}</ref> Among her close friends included [[BJP]] politician [[Arun Jaitley]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dev |first=Atul |date=1 December 2018 |title=History repeating at Shobhana Bhartia's Hindustan Times |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/media/history-repeating-shobhana-bhartias-hindustan-times |url-access=subscription |access-date=15 February 2020 |website=[[The Caravan]] |language=en}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.forbes.com/profile/shobhana-bhartia/#1675a0071726 Shobhana Bhartia] on [[Forbes]]

{{authority control}}
{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Literature & Education}}
{{Birla family}}
{{Aditya Birla Group}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhartia, Shobhana}}
[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Birla family]]
[[Category:Rajasthani people]]
[[Category:Nominated members of the Rajya Sabha]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Marwari people]]
[[Category:Indian mass media owners]]
[[Category:Indian newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Businesswomen from Delhi]]
[[Category:Indian women editors]]
[[Category:Hindustan Times]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian businesswomen]]
[[Category:Indian women business executives]]
[[Category:Indian business executives]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesspeople]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian journalists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian businesswomen]]
[[Category:Indian women newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Women members of the Rajya Sabha]]

Shobhana Bhartia - Revision history

EJDTimmy2065: put up stub