Shabnam Asthana is an Indian public relations expert, speaker, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. In 2012, she received the National Public Relations Hall of Fame award by PRCI from H. K. Dua for her contributions in the public relations field.

Early life and education

Asthana was born in

Bokaro Steel City Bokaro, officially known as Bokaro Steel City () is a planned city in Jharkhand, India. It is fourth largest and most populous city in the state. It is one of the planned cities of India. Bokaro is the administrative headquarters of Bokaro distri ...

. She earned a bachelor's degree in arts from

Lady Shri Ram College Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) is a constituent women's college, affiliated with the University of Delhi, and has a legacy in women's education. History Established in 1956 in New Delhi by the late Lala Shri Ram in memory of his wife ...

in 1983 and later, she earned a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in arts and also studied at Symbiosis to complete a

post graduate diploma A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...

Public Relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

and

Advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

. She also completed a postgraduate program in marketing management from Symbiosis, Pune.

Career

Asthana taught English for more than 2 years at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. After leaving NDA, she worked at a few private companies and also as a freelance journalist and writer for leading newspapers and magazines. She also served as a panelist and guest faculty for Institutes and Business Schools including Symbiosis, Indira, IIBM, Sinhagad, Matrix, NIILM, D.Y Patil and others.

2005-present

In 2005, Asthana founded Empowered Solutions. In addition to coordinating and synchronizing the functions of businesses, the company also handles public relations and draws out marketing and sales strategies for them. Her clientage includes IND TV USA, Garware Wall Ropes, Reiter, Phoenix Mecano, Premium, The Little Gym, Soukos Robots S.A, SIMC, Clover Builders, University of Pune, Funskool, NTT data and others. In May 2017, her book, Romancing Your Career was launched by

Lila Poonawalla Lila Firoz Poonawalla (born 16 September 1944) is an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, humanitarian and the founder of ''Lila Poonawalla Foundation'', a non governmental organization promoting professional education among aspiring girls in I ...

. The book is about work experiences in the corporate world and was covered by

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busine ...

DNA News ''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of new ...

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

, Education Times and other major media. Asthana is often seen at conferences for entrepreneurship, public relations and women upliftment including National Summit on Startups and Women Entrepreneurship, Eurasian Economic Congress, Indian Russian Dialogue and Ahmadiya Muslim Community Conference. As of June 2020, she also writes on the

Thrive Global Thrive Global is an American company that provides behavior change technology. It was founded by Arianna Huffington in August 2016. The company is based in New York City. In 2017, Thrive Global raised $30 million in a new funding round that v ...

platform.

Accolades

She received the Hall of Fame award at Mumbai from The PRCI for her contributions in the public relations industry in 2012. Asthana was the first Indian to be invited at 2012 PRSSA 2012 National Conference in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. She received the Times Power Women 2017 award for Global PR from

The Times Group Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...

in January 2018. In September 2018, she received Times Power Woman 2018 award from The Times of India Group. Next month, Asthana received the Mahatma Gandhi Samman at the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and 2018 Pune Best Brand Awards. In April 2019, Asthana was conferred an honorary doctorate by

National American University National American University (NAU) is a private for-profit online university with locations at Ellsworth Air Force Base and Naval Submarine Base King's Bay. It is owned by National American University Holdings, Inc. (NAUH). In 2018, NAU acqui ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asthana, Shabnam Indian public relations people Businesswomen from Jharkhand Lady Shri Ram College alumni People from Bokaro Steel City Businesspeople from Jharkhand Living people 20th-century Indian businesswomen 20th-century Indian businesspeople Indian women business executives Year of birth missing (living people)