Shobhana Bhartia Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Real Name	Shobhana Bhartia
Profession(s)	Entrepreneur, Politician
Famous As	Chairperson and Editorial Director of the Hindustan Times Group
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 165 cm in meters- 1.65 m in feet inches- 5’ 5”
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms- 60 kg in pounds- 130 lbs
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Light Ash Blonde
Politics
Political Party	Indian National Congress
Personal Life
Date of Birth	4 January 1957
Age (as in 2018)	61 Years
Birthplace	Kolkata , West Bengal
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Kolkata , West Bengal
School	Loreto House, Kolkata
College/University	Calcutta University
Educational Qualification	Not Known
Religion	Hinduism
Caste	Vaishya
Ethnicity	Marwari
Hobbies	Reading, Writing
Awards, Honours, Achievements	1992: National Press India Award 1996: Global Leader of Tomorrow Award from the World Economic Forum 2001: Outstanding Business Woman of the Year by Ph.D. Chamber of Commerce & Industry 2005: Padma Shri for Journalism 2007: Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2013: Delhi Women of the Decade Achievers Award from the ASSOCHAM Ladies League for her Excellence in Nation Building through Media & Leadership 2016: Officier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (France’s Highest Civilian Award)
Controversies	• In 2006, when she was nominated as the member of Rajya Sabha, which was challenged in the Supreme Court of India, as the nomination was reserved for the people from the field of social service, science, art, and literature. Whereas, she was considered a "media baron" and not a journalist. However, the Supreme Court at the admission stage itself dismissed the appeal stating that she was included as per her contribution in social service • In 2017, Shobhana Bhartia announced that Bobby Ghosh, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper had exited her company. It came as an abrupt exit to the readers after he left in a very brief stint. Since a few initiatives were taken by Ghosh such as ‘Hate Tracker’ and ‘Let’s talk about troll’ made Modi Government a bit upset as it appeared the campaigns were being aimed at the supporters of BJP. 'The Wire' website revealed that just before the announcement of Ghosh's exit, Shobhana held a closed-door meeting with Modi Government where objections were put by the party members and top-level government on the editorial decisions taken during the tenure of Ghosh in HT. Although Shobhana denied the allegations stating that no pressure was created by the Modi Government on Ghosh to leave.
Boys, Affairs and More
Marital Status	Married
Marriage Date	Not Known
Family
Husband/Spouse	Shyam Sunder Bhartia (Chairman of Jubilant LifeScience Limited, a ₹14-billion pharmaceutical firm)
Children	Son- Shamit Bhartia (Entrepreneur) Priyavrat Bhartia (Entrepreneur) Daughter- None
Parents	Father- KK Birla (Entrepreneur, Politician) Mother- Manorma Devi Birla
Siblings	Brother- None Sister(s)- Jyotsna Poddar (Entrepreneur) Nandini Nopany (Entrepreneur)
Money Factor
Net Worth (approx.)	₹14,500 Crore

Some Lesser Known Facts About Shobhana Bhartia

Does Shobhana Bhartia smoke?: Not Known

Does Shobhana Bhartia drink alcohol?: Yes

She was the grand-daughter of GD Birla, an eminent businessman of Birla family, who built the Birla empire in the area: media houses, textiles, sugar mills, and fertilizers.

Her father, KK Birla distributed the areas of responsibilities of fertilizers and sugar mills among her daughters, Jyotsna Poddar and Nandini Nopany respectively. The obvious choice for the media arm was his third daughter, Shobhana Bhartia as she was already actively involved with the newspaper.

While she was pursuing her graduation, she got married to Shyam Sunder Bhartia and completed rest of her studies through correspondence.

When she was 29, she first stepped into the Hindustan Times as the director of the company in 1986. She was the first women to become the chief executive of a national newspaper. By 1991, she also took the charge as newspaper’s executive director.

Till the year 2004, Birla family held 75.36% stake in Hindustan Times Media.

She sold 20% of her company’s stake to the London-based ‘Henderson Global Investors in 2005,’ it was for the first time that, an Indian newspaper industry was receiving the first ever foreign direct investment.

In 2005, she raised an amount of 400 Crore via public equity launch by her company.

In 2006, she was nominated to Rajya Sabha by Congress Party-led government.

Just in a month of being in Rajya Sabha, she introduced the Child Marriage (Abolition) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill (2006), replacing the existing Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929. In 2007, it became an act.

In 2015, Hindustan Times was the 13th largest media company in India and owns ‘Mint’ (a business newspaper), radio channel Fever 104 with Virgin radio and Hindi newspaper Hindustan.

She became the first of Birla family to be on “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list by the Forbes magazine. Specifically, she was ranked 93rd most powerful women in the world in 2016.

She also took up the charge of the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS) as its pro-chancellor.

Her son, Shamit Bhartia is not just a member of Hindustan Times media but also operates lifestyle businesses such as Domino’s Pizza franchise and a chain of a convenience store ‘Monday to Friday’ in Bangalore city. He got married to Nayantara Kothari (eldest grandchild of Dhirubhai Ambani) in 2013.