Sucheta Dalal (born 1962) is an Indian business

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. She has been a journalist for over two decades and was awarded a

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

for journalism in 2006. She was the Financial Editor for the ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest se ...

'' until 1998 when she joined the Indian Express group as a Consulting Editor, leaving in 2008. She is known for exposing the 1992 stock market scam propagated by Harshad Mehta. In 2006, she began to write for ''

Moneylife Moneylife is an online personal finance website. The original fortnightly print edition ceased production from May 2018. History ''Moneylife'' was founded by husband and wife Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal in 2006. The Moneylife foundation w ...

'', a fortnightly magazine on investment started by her husband Debashis Basu. She is now the

Managing Editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edit ...

of ''Moneylife''. In 2010, responding to poor financial literacy in India, she and her husband founded ''Moneylife Foundation'', a not-for-profit organisation based in Mumbai. She is a member of the Investor Education & Protection Fund of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In 1992, she was honoured with the

Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediapersons The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson is an Indian journalism award named after Chameli Devi Jain, an Indian independence activist who became the first Jain woman to go to prison during India's independence struggle. The ...

Education and career

Born in a

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and su ...

family, Sucheta did her schooling at St. Joseph’s Convent School, Belagavi. She then studied B.Sc Statistics at Karnataka College, Dharwad. She is a trained lawyer having gained

LL.B Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

and

LL.M A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from

Bombay University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

. Subsequently, in 1984, Sucheta began her career in journalism by landing a job with Fortune India, an investment magazine. Later, she went on to work in news companies like Business Standard and The Economic Times. In the early 1990s, Dalal joined the prominent Mumbai based newspaper ''

'' as a journalist for their Business and economics wing. There she investigated a number of cases that would eventually lead to her prominence in the fields of journalism and activism. These included the Harshad Mehta scam of 1992, the Enron scam, the

Industrial Development Bank of India The IDBI Bank Limited (IDBI Bank or IDBI) is a development finance institution under the ownership of Life Insurance Corporation of India and Government of India. It was established in 1964 as Industrial Development Bank of India, a developmen ...

scam, the Ketan Parekh scam in 2001. She worked closely with journalists and analysts such as Debashis Basu,

Girish Sant Girish Sant was a noted energy analyst held in high esteem as an energy policy commentator from India. He co-founded the non-governmental organisation Prayas in Pune, India. His analytical inputs helped shape India's energy policy over the decade ...

, Shantanu Dixit and Pradyumna Kaul. She later became the Financial editor of ''Times of India''.

Awards and recognition

Sucheta has been conferred the

Padma Shri Award Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conferr ...

, the Chameli Devi Award instituted by the Media Foundation, and Femina’s Woman of Substance Award for her zealous work in journalism. ''

Scam 1992 ''Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story'' is an Indian Hindi-language biographical financial thriller streaming television series on SonyLIV directed by Hansal Mehta, with Jai Mehta serving as the co-director. Based on the 1992 Indian stock mark ...

'', a docudrama directed series by

Hansal Mehta Hansal Mehta (born 29 April 1968) is an Indian filmmaker. He started his career with television show '' Khana Khazana'' (1993–2000) and later moved on to directing films like ''Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!'' (2000), ''Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?'' (2002) an ...

was based on her and Debasis Basu's book '' The Scam''. It was released in October 2020 and Dalal's character was played by Shreya Dhanwanthary.

Select publications

;Books * * *

In popular culture

* Actress Shreya Dhanwanthary played Sucheta Dalal in ''

'', a

Sony LIV SonyLIV is an Indian over-the-top freemium streaming platform owned by Culver Max Entertainment. SonyLIV was introduced in 2013 as the first OTT service in India. As a streaming service, it is carrying content from its local networks, inc ...

's original series. It was based on her own book ''The Scam: Who Won, Who Lost, who Got Away''. * Actress

Ileana D'Cruz Ileana D'Cruz (born 1 November 1987) is an Indian-born Portuguese actress and model who predominantly appears in Telugu language, Telugu and Hindi language films. D'Cruz was born in Mumbai and spent most of her childhood in Goa. D'Cruz made her ...

has played Meera Rao, a character inspired by Sucheta Dalal in ''

The Big Bull ''The Big Bull'' is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language financial thriller film directed and written by Kookie Gulati, based on stockbroker Harshad Mehta who was involved in financial crimes over a period of 10 years during 1980–1990. The film stars ...

'', a 2021 film which is also based on the same book.

References

External links

Sucheta Dalal's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalal, Sucheta 1962 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education University of Mumbai alumni Indian business and financial journalists Indian Express Limited people Indian newspaper journalists Journalists from Karnataka People from Dharwad district Indian investigative journalists Managing editors Karnatak University alumni