Introduction
Commencing with Seth Shivnarayan Das Birla setting up cotton trading operation in 1857 at Pilani, the Aditya Birla Group (ABG) has grown immensely in over 160 years reaching out to various sectors such as viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon-black, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. The group serves worldwide with direct presence in 35 countries. It is currently headquartered at Mumbai and is being led by Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Presence In Our Lives
Let us try and have a look at how ABG is touching different aspects of our lives.
Infrastructure
ABG comprises of UltraTech Cements which is India’s largest cement company. It is top player in Grey Cement,White Cement and Concrete. As cement is a prime material in infrastructure such as roads, bridges etc. and infrastructure itself is a prerequisite for development, one can easily fathom its contribution.
Hindalco is the world leader in aluminium, producing products like cans, aluminium sheets for industry, foils packets etc. The company also leads in recycle of aluminium making an astounding effort towards sustainable development.
As one of the largest copper producer of the country, ABG has immense contribution to smooth running of Indian Railways which one can understand as the life line of the country both passenger and goods transport wise.
Education
The Group has Birla School at Pilani, the students from which attend various international competitions and get into reputed Universities.
Additionally, it also maintains the Birla Institute of Technology and Science University with three campuses in India and one at Dubai. The university is ranked among top ten universities of the country by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government Of India.
Social
The group is also actively involved beyond its business activities. It annually reaches out to 7.5 million people through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural DevelopmentWorks in 5,000 villages globally. They also run 56 schools which provide quality education to 46,500 children. Of these 18,000 students belong to the underprivileged segment. Merit scholarships are given to 24,000 children from the interiors. Its 20 hospitals tend to more than a million villagers. Ongoing education, healthcare and sustainable livelihood projects in Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Korea and Brazil lift thousands of people out of poverty. It provides mid-day meals to 74,000 children through Akshaya Patra helloing a hand towards governments aim to reduce malnutrition in the country.
Summary
The ABG has led its way from a small scale business to one of the largest conglomerates of the country. But in the process it has not forgotten its responsibility towards making people’s lives better. This idea itself has contributed immensely to the success of the company. The basic approach of the company can be easily explained in Its chairman’s words itself - “ Even if the process of development is a little slower, it does not matter as long as you are on the correct path which leads to satisfaction of maximum number of people.”