Shutapa Paul

Founder, Dharma Media Consultants

Shutapa Paul has been in the media space for over 17 years, having worked first as a journalist across various mediums such as television, newspapers and magazines before embarking on her entrepreneurial journey. Currently, she is Founder of brand-building and communications company, Dharma Media Consultants (www.dharmamedia.in). She leads an energetic team of young communications experts who handle eminent firms in the PE-VC, startup, and startup ecosystem. A bootstrapped entrepreneur, Shutapa is greatly invested in women empowerment and routinely mentors young female professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs through keynote addresses at school and college events, workshops, and one-on-one interactions. Dharma is a woman-led and women-dominated young business that has been awarded as 'Fastest Growing PR Agency' at STAKES 2022. Shutapa has been recognised as one of the ‘100 Women Faces’ by the Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs in 2018. She was awarded ‘Woman of the Year in Media and Journalism’ by Woman Times in February 2019. Her first book, a political biography, was released by Penguin India.

Previously, Shutapa has been Group Editor of digital media startup, Newsd. During the span of her career, she has worked for well-known brands such as NDTV, NewsX, India Today, The Week, and Forbes India.

Shutapa has represented India at Thomson Reuters’ Editorial Judgement programme held in London, UK in 2014. She also represented India at the prestigious Australia India Youth Dialogue 2017 held in Melbourne and Sydney. She was selected as one of 15 Indians to lead the dialogue between both India and Australia. In 2016, she also mentored a budding Afghani journalist under the Sahar Speaks programme. She was also selected for the Net Zero Fellowship Programme by the School of Policy and Governance (SPG) in 2022.

A keen observer of politics, economy, policy and current affairs, Shutapa continues to write for various media organisations such as Forbes India, Millennium Post, DailyO, News18.com, The Hindu and Asiaville among others. She also moderates and anchors various shows and panel discussions. She is frequently invited by television news channels such as News18, NDTV, NewsX, Mirror Now, Times Now, and India Ahead News to share her views on politics and current affairs. Interviewing people who matter, simplifying complex economic and policy matters, unearthing human interest stories and diving deep into every story, keeps Shutapa motivated.