Born in a
Marwari family on 4 January 1957, 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. She grew up in
Kolkata and had her schooling at
Loreto House. She is a graduate of
Calcutta University, and is married to Shyam Sunder Bhartia, 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, 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. 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. 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. 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 ==