Asia's 9 Most Powerful Indian Businesswomen

Shobhana Bhartia

Shobhana Bhartia is the Editorial Director and Chairperson of the Hindustan Times Group. Her shift towards media is something new as she hails from the grand family of the Birlas. Still, she has emerged as the reigning queen of print media. With media giants, like The Time Group, in the limelight, Bhartia has not given up and has raised Hindustan Times to a national status. In the year 1986, she was the first woman CEO of Hindustan Times and also the youngest. She is deemed the driving force behind the successful revamping of Hindustan Times as “a bright, young paper." In the year 2001, she made an investment of 4 billion to challenge their main competitor, Times of India. This was how she had openly declared war on TOI.  Vir Sanghvi was appointed as the Editor of HT in 2009. She even added 5 more supplements to make up for their drawback.  It even adopted the marketing strategies of TOI, namely - ad campaigns, promotions and events. Her fresh and innovative ideas have infused new life into the Hindustan Times Group.