The Aditya Birla Group is something that is synonymous with India and its citizens.
The roots of the Group go back nearly a hundred years before India got its independence.
It’s safe to say that it’s goal’s matched those of our country’s and its citizen’s for not just
political but also economic freedom.
It was in Pilani, Rajasthan in 1857 that the pillar of foundation of this group was laid by Shiv
Narayan Birla, a cotton trader. Subsequently in the early 20th century, his grandson,
Ghanshyamdas Birla, spread the lines of business into sectors such as textiles, fibre,
aluminum and chemicals. One of the most famous brands associated with the group, Grasim
Industries Ltd was incorporated on 25 August 1947 and started by manufacturing textiles
from imported raw materials. Today, it is a global name in VSF and the largest chemicals
player in India while also being the largest cement producer and has entered into the
Financial Services through its subsidiaries UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Capital. The
word Grasim is also closely associated with Linen Club, one of the most top-notch linen
brands in India and the world. Today Linen is following the group’s motto to showcase this
product to the world by not only expanding R&D to international experts but also getting
certified by the European Confederation of Linen and Hemp (CELC), the only European agroindustrial
organisation federating all the stages of production and transformation for linen &
hemp.
Talking about Grasim, one cannot forget another famous brand, UltraTech Cements. Bought
when the group took over a majority share from Larsen and Toubro Ltd in 2004, the brand is
now the largest manufacturer of cement in India and a global player again bringing the
country’s top notch offering to the world. It is our country’s largest manufacturer of grey
cement, white cement (Birla White) and ready-mix concrete (RMC). It is also the largest
manufacturer of concrete in India and is aptly known to us with its famous tagline “The
Engineers Choice”.
But one of the most synonymous things for Indian consumers on a retail scale would be the
subsidiary known as Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL). The subsidiary emerged
after the consolidation of two of the most famous names in Indian Retail, Madura Fashion (
Loius Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly etc.) and Pantaloons Fashion and Retail (PFRL). Be it
in shopping complexes in Tier 2 cities or malls in the metro cities, we have seen the face of
this brand in its many avatars and even shopped there for basic things such as vests or socks
to getting prim suit stitched with their bespoke services. With more than 11,000 points of
sale including online retail, the brands presence in our lives has been omnipresent at every
stage.
We have also seen an impact of Hindalco on our lives. Hindalco Industries Limited is the
metals flagship company of Aditya Birla Group. It is the world's largest aluminium rolling
company and is also a leading producer of copper, along with its global subsidiary, the
Atlanta based company, Novelis Inc., Hindalco has a presence in 12 countries making it a
global player with Indian Roots. It’s most famous product in most households would’ve
been “Freshwrapp”, the aluminium roll which was used to pack our food items in our tiffins
to ensure non spoilage of the food.
“If your first instinct is to run away from failures, then perhaps you’re doing it the wrong way!” These are the words of Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group and they resonate with me quite closely given the experiences that I have had in my life till now.
Since a young age, I had seen that we were told by our parents to always take the road more travelled rather than the road less travelled. Why? Because it was the safer choice that one could take in their path towards achieving their goals.
Fast forward to my college life, I am a normal going student pursuing Economic Honors in Delhi University and have attended multiple number of fests (In Delhi University, the number of fests being conducted is a good number and the competition is quite severe) and I think to myself. Wait? Why doesn’t my college have an economics society let alone an Eco Fest? So, in my final year I rally with 2 other people from my department and we tell ourselves that here we have an opportunity to put ourselves on the market in Delhi University and organise a first-time fest of a society which has been defunct since the last 5 years. Plus, we have a chance to rechristen it to a name of our choice. We come up with “Econox”, the Economics Society of the College of Vocational Studies, Delhi University. Yes, the name sounds good but right now we have an opportunity to do something, to write ourselves in the history of something that could be big in the years, to give back something to our institution that has been our home for the last three years.
So we go around the administration and our department and pitch the idea of a fest with a generic name, its March 2013 by now. Time is running out. By our estimated timeline we have just two weeks to get people in, divide them with responsibilities and get a fest under our college’s name. We do the needful, and have a good amount of sixty students working towards a common cause. But more trouble is on the way. We have arranged title and associate sponsors from various brands and we get to know, our principal is denying us external sponsorship to run the event and is providing us with a budget of just 6000 INR. How can we do a fest with such a small amount of money?
We rally around, get people to pitch in personal goods, ask people from other departments to pitch in where they can to ensure our costs are limited to a minimum. One night before our event, we are working hard but I can see a good number of guys are feeling disillusioned, on enquiry a common question comes to me: “Are You Sure?”
“Are you sure that all this effort is worth it?” “Are you sure we will even be able to put up a fest?” etc.
Such questions are not easy to answer. One could’ve easily avoided the hard questions and rallied up the troops but I chose to answer it. “It’s not about are you sure, it’s about giving your best effort to a common cause where we are all involved in. It’s about telling yourself it’s not about the end goal, it’s about going to bed irrespective of the result knowing you gave your best and that this fact shall help you sleep easily”. I knew it wasn’t an easy thing to say to people who are already feeling disillusioned and not hundred percent towards a cause but I knew if I didn’t say anything now, it would be an opportunity lost in time forever.
In the end, we gave a decent fest, albeit with a range of problems, but when I see today, what our offspring has become, I can say with a good amount of confidence, “ I tried to change what I had to give a better tomorrow" and in the same way since the time our independence the Aditya Birla Group has in some way or the other impacted our lives massively. Be it in the telecom sector or the retail space, it has been parallel to the country’s economic goals since that time. But most importantly, it has left a massive global footprint showcasing India’s talent and knowledge from one of the biggest business houses of the country, aptly put as “Taking India To The World”.