Archana Garodia Gupta is an Indian author, entrepreneur, business leader, and quizzer. She was the president of the FICCI Ladies Association in 2015.

Early life and education

Archana was born in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

and grew up in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. She did her schooling in Modern School, Vasant Vihar and graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women,

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

, with a BA (Hons) in Economics in 1986. She did her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in the top 15 of her class with a merit scholarship.

Business career

Archana Gupta owns and runs Touchstone, a successful gem and jewelry business, which is a pioneer of Indian costume jewelry. Touchstone has a pan Indian retail presence and also exports, primarily to the US and Europe.

Public sphere

Archana was the President of FLO, the women’s wing of FICCI, the

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

, in 2015- 2016. She has been working in the sphere of women’s development for the last two decades. Among other women empowerment initiatives promoted were Swayam, a handholding, mentoring, and consultancy cell nationwide for women, and a number of skilling and employment initiatives under the umbrella WE (Women Empowerment). Archana Garodia Gupta has been the National Chair of the FICCI MSME Committee. She is a member of the Brics Financial Committee from India, leading the SME Taskforce. She has been a spokesperson on behalf of FICCI in many national and international forums and for print and television. She has been a key board member of the

Noida Noida (), short for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (ISO: ), is a city located in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. As per provisional reports of Census of India, the population of Noida in 2011 was ...

Women Entrepreneurs Association for the last 20 years. She helped promote a successful women’s industrial park along with the UP Government, Mahila Udyami Park, in

Greater Noida Greater Noida is a planned city located in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city was created as an extension of the area under the ''UP Industrial Area Development Act, of 1976''. Situated southeast ...

in 1999. She is on the governing body of the

Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur (IIM Sirmaur or IIM S), one of India's premier management institute, is an autonomous public business school located in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh. The institute, set up by the Government of India, is one ...

. She is on the Board of Trustees and Governing Body of I.P. College for Women,

. Other posts held previously include being a member of the SAARC Committee, FICCI. She is widely traveled, both in her business capacity and as a speaker in international conferences.

Quizzing

Archana has been quizzing since school and has won many competitions. She won the television quiz BBC Mastermind India in 2001, which was conducted by Siddharth Basu. She won the Champion of Champions title for BBC Mastermind India in 2002. She has been an expert for many episodes on the popular Indian television show ''

Kaun Banega Crorepati ''Kaun Banega Crorepati'' (simply ''KBC''; English: ''Who Will Become a Crorepati'') is an Indian Hindi-language television game show. It is the official Hindi adaptation of the '' Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' franchise. It is presented ...

'' hosted by

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

in 2019 and 2020. She conducts quizzes on a national and international level.

Literary career

Archana Garodia Gupta is the coauthor, along with Shruti Garodia, of the bestselling two-volume ''A History of India for Children'' published by Hachette, which was nominated for the

Crossword book award The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Bo ...

, and included in ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' list of "10 books every Indian child must read". It comprehensively covers the

history of India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

from

prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

to modern times. She is also the author of ''The Women Who Ruled India'', which details the stories of 20 women who ruled in India. She writes on retail, women’s issues, and history for newspapers and magazines. She co-writes the column "Revisiting History" in ''The Hindu in School''. She has written regular columns for ''Indian Express Parenting''. She has written a column on Women in Indian History for ''Swarajya'' magazine. She has spoken at many literary festivals across the country.

Awards and recognition

* Winner of BBC Mastermind India TV Quiz, 2001 * Winner of Champion of Champions BBC Mastermind India TV Quiz, 2002 * Bharat Nirman Award for Women Entrepreneurship * FLO IWAAF 2018 award for Outstanding Contribution for Mobilizing Women Entrepreneurs * Nominated for Crossword Popular Choice Best Children’s Book 2019 * Selected in ''

'' "list of 10 books every Indian child must read"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Archana Garodia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad alumni Lady Shri Ram College alumni 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian businesswomen Businesswomen from Delhi Businesswomen from West Bengal Quiz championship players Indian jewellery designers Indian columnists Indian children's writers 21st-century Indian non-fiction writers Indian women activists Indian business writers