Chitra Subramaniam

Chitra Subramaniam is an Indian journalist famous for uncovering the Bofors scandal.

Personal life

She was born in Sindri, India. She was educated at Lady Sri Ram College (Delhi University) with a Bachelors in English Literature and received her Masters in journalism from Stanford University, California, USA. Prior to this, she did her post-graduate Diploma in Journalism from the reputed Indian Institute of Mass Communication. She received The Hindu award for journalism. She is married with two children and lives in Geneva with her husband Dr. Giancarlo Duella.

Career

She was based in Geneva in 1987 working for The Hindu. Working out of Switzerland and Sweden, she got hold of the 300-plus documents which showed that the Swedish arms manufacturer, Bofors, had paid [[Bofors scandal|massive kickbacks to Indians and others for the gun deal. For nearly five years she investigated the scandal and the work involved technical and political analysis of complex documents and an understanding of national and international rules and regulation. She followed the process till 1997 when, based on the documentary evidence provided by Subramaniam, Switzerland after a series of cout procedures, agreed to hand over secret bank documents to the Indian government. In the nineties, this Swiss move was a rarity. In the early phase of the investigation, Subramaniam was with The Hindu newspaper. The investigation led to a massive political uproar and is widely believed to have caused the electoral defeat of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Due to political pressure, The Hindu abruptly ceased publication of her reports. Subramaniam resigned from The Hindu. She got several offers from other Indian newspapers to continue her work. She went to the Indian Express. She has also reported widely on multilateral trade (GATT-WTO) negotiations and disarmament.

For her work she has received several journalism awards including the prestigious B.D. Goenka Award and the Chameli Devi Award. She is the author of several books, including; India is for Sale, a New York Times - India, best seller.

In 1997, Chitra Subramaniam was invited by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former Prime Minister of Norway to be part of her campaign team for the post of Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The campaign was successful. Dr. Brundtland was elected as head of the WHO and she announced that global tobacco control was one of her priorities. She set up the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) a cabinet project which led to the conclusion of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first treaty entirely devoted to public health. Chitra Subramaniam led the work on Policy Analysis and Communications for TFI.

After the successful completion of the FCTC mandate at the WHO, Chitra Subramaniam moved on to set up CSDconsulting csdconsulting.net , a business development and marketing company that promots ethical and transparent business practices between India and Europe. She has worked with several companies, many of whom are global leaders.