PART A
A US $44.3 billion corporation, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. Anchored by an extraordinary force of over 120,000 employees belonging to 42 nationalities, the Group is built on a strong foundation of stakeholder value creation. With over seven decades of responsible business practices, our businesses have grown into global powerhouses in a wide range of sectors – metals, textiles, carbon black, telecom and cement. Today, over 50% of Group revenues flow from overseas operations that span 34 countries in North and South America, Africa and Asia.
Growing up in the ‘90s, I can recall vivid memories of Peter England Campaign – “The honest shirt”. At that time, Peter England shirts used to be a sort of affordable luxury good. The kind of product that your parents would gift to an elder cousin who had just passed their boards exam. The brand value attached to it has grown over the years where the loyal customer base trusts the brand blindly.
Another memory from the past is of Birla Planetarium in Kolkata. I remember being in awe of science as well as the person whose idea resulted in this huge building. That experience was a one of a kind in those days as there were hardly any planetariums in the country that too of such standard.
Aditya Birla Group is also known for their CSR Activities. Their work in the field of healthcare, education, sustainable livelihood programmes and infrastructure. They have worked in 5000 villages, treated over a million patients, runs 5000 medical camps and 20 hospitals, immunised 70 million children against polio and operates 50 schools. Such efforts are definitely praiseworthy.
PART B
The biggest challenge that I’ve faced in life yet has been to learn how to code. Growing up, in school I did not have Computer Science as a subject because of marks constraint by the school but still I wanted to pursue a career in the domain so I decided I would take up Engineering in computer science after school.
This was a challenging decision and at first my parents were also worried if I would be able to manage the course but then they supported my decision and I took up the course. The beginning was very bumpy because of me not knowing anything related to programming languages but then I knew what I had gotten myself into so I planned out. I took up programming classes outside of college on weekdays where I would spend 10 hours each weekend learning the basics as well as advanced concepts. My learning was not just limited to extra classes, I also learned through various online tutorials which were much more in line with the ongoing industry trend. This way I made myself strong both theoretically as well as well versed with the latest technological trends. Last thing I did was enrol for programming exercises such as Hackerrank which used to be a cult favourite amongst programmers.
Working tirelessly towards learning made me quite good at programming. Though everyone dreams of a fantastic job at the end of their graduation. I was no different but when I was trying to learn, my only objective was to learn to improve my knowledge and skills and this approach helped me a lot in my life.
