Gita Piramal (born 1954) is an Indian writer and business

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

Education

Gita Piramal completed her education in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and graduated from

Bombay University University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

. She holds a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in business history (1988), a Master's degree in History (1981), and a Bachelor of Art in History of the West (1977).Business Maharani Indian Express 22 Jul 1997
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Career

Gita Piramal serves as a Senior Associate Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford. She has worked as an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and businesswoman, a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and writer. Piramal founded The Smart Manager, a management magazine, which she led from 2002 to 2012. She also headed ERGO (2005-2012), a furniture manufacturer, from 2005 to 2012 and was a director at VIP Luggage from 1990 to 2005. Currently, she serves as a non-executive board member at

Bajaj Auto Bajaj Auto Limited ( ) is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company based in Pune. It manufactures motorcycles, scooters and auto rickshaws. Bajaj Auto is a part of the Bajaj Group. It was founded by Jamnalal Bajaj (1889–19 ...

Bajaj Finance Bajaj Finance Limited (BFL) is a deposit-taking Indian non-banking financial company headquartered in Pune. It has a customer base of 101.82 million and holds assets under management worth , as of March 2025. As per the 2023 list of NBFCs iss ...

Bajaj Finserv Bajaj Finserv Limited is an Indian non-banking financial services company headquartered in Pune. It is focused on lending, asset management, wealth management and insurance. History The financial services and wind energy businesses were tra ...

and Bajaj Holdings & Investments. Piramal conceptualized and created content for three programs on

CNBC-TV18 CNBC TV18 is an Indian pay television business and financial news channel operated as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and Network18 Group. History The network has its origins in ABNi, an Indian sub-feed of the Dow Jones-led Asia Bus ...

. She scripted, edited, and appeared in or anchored over 100 television

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

and contributed more than 1,500 articles to international and Indian publications.

Published writings

Books

* ''Kamalnayan Bajaj: Architect of the Bajaj Group'' (2015), Kamalnayan Bajaj Charitable Trust Book, Pune * ''The Quotable Tycoon'' (2008), with David Olive,

Penguin Books India Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

* ''Managing Radical Change'' (2000), with Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett, Penguin Books India, Delhi * ''Business Mantras'' (1999), with Aparna Piramal,

Radhika Piramal Radhika Piramal is the Vice Chairperson of VIP Industries since 2010. Previously, she has served as Executive Director and as Managing director of the company. She is a graduate from Oxford University has an MBA from Harvard Business School. She ...

, and Mukund Beriwala, Penguin Books India, Delhi * ''Business Legend'' (1998), Penguin Books India, Delhi * ''Business Maharajas'' (1997), Penguin Books India, Delhi * ''India’s Industrialists'' (1985), with Margaret Herdeck, Three Continents Press, Washington

Book chapters

* ‘The Bombay Plan and the Frustrations of Sir Ardeshir Dalal'. Chapter in Sanjaya Baru (ed). ‘The Bombay Plan’.

Rupa Publications Rupa Publications is an Indian publishing company based in New Delhi, with sales centres in Kolkata, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kathmandu. Genesis Rupa Publications was founded in 1936 by D. Mehra and R. K. M ...

. 2018. * ‘Ratan Tata’ and ‘J.R.D.Tata’ chapters in ‘The Tata Saga’. Penguin, 2018. * ‘Animal Spirits: Stray Thoughts on the Nature of Entrepreneurship in India's Business Families after Liberalization'. Chapter in Rakesh Mohan (ed). 'India Transformed: 25 Years of Economic Reforms'.

Penguin Random House India Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was originally founded in 1935 and Random House was fou ...

. 2017. * 'Dhirubhai Ambani', 'Rahul Bajaj', 'Ratan Tata' and 'Walchand Hirachand'. Chapters in ‘The Portfolio Book of Great Indian Business Stories: Riveting Tales of Business Leaders and Their Times’. New Delhi: Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd. 2015. * ‘Succession Planning Under The Banyan Tree'. Chapter in ‘Business Standard 2008’. BS Books, New Delhi, 2008. * ‘The Old Fox'. Chapter in ‘The Non-Fiction Collection: 20 Years of Penguin India’. Volume 3, Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2007. * ‘The Elixir of Entrepreneurship’. Chapter in S V Prabhath (ed). ‘Women Entrepreneurs in India: challenges and achievements. National Institute of Small Industry Extension.

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. 2002. * ‘Dhirubhai Ambani’, ‘GD Birla’, ‘JRD Tata’, ‘MK Gandhi’, ‘N Murty’, ‘Rahul Bajaj’, and ‘Sumantra Ghoshal’. Morgen Witzel (ed). Entries in ‘The Biographical Dictionary of Management’. Thoemmes Press.

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, UK. 2001. * ‘New Maharajas’. Chapter in ‘Footprints of Enterprise – Indian Business Through the Ages’.

FICCI The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla a ...

. Delhi. 1997. * ‘JRD Tata and GD Birla’. Chapter in Ayaz Menon (ed). ‘India 50 – the Making of a Nation’. Book Quest.

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. 1997. * ‘Entrepreneurs and Political Awareness - a Study of Bombay’s Business Groups’. Chapter in Dwijendra Tripathi (ed). ‘Business and Politics – A Historical Perspective’. Indian Institute of Management

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

. 1991.

Edited volumes

* ''Sumantra Ghoshal on Management: A Force for Good'' (2005), with Julian Birkinshaw, FT Prentice Hall.

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

* ''Smart Leadership: Insights for CEOs'' (2005), with Jennifer Netarwala, Penguin Books India, Delhi

Personal life

Gita Piramal married businessman Dilip Piramal, chairman and managing director of Blow Plast (VIP Luggage), in 1985. They have two daughters, Radhika and Aparna. The couple divorced in 2005.

References

External links

Gita Piramal
at

Penguin India Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a smal ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piramal, Gita Living people Businesswomen from Maharashtra Indian women historians 20th-century Indian historians Indian business writers Women writers from Maharashtra Rajasthani people Businesspeople from Mumbai Businesspeople from London University of Mumbai alumni Women business writers 20th-century women writers 1954 births 20th-century Indian women Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford