My life journey with ABG - Rishabh Vijay, MDI GURGAON

Tell us why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life?

To understand the kind of impact a conglomerate like Aditya Birla Group has on the lives of ordinary Indian consumers like me, one just needs to look at the ABG footprint in our daily lives. Just like each person has a carbon footprint, we can look at the ABG footprint for each person. 

The house that I wake up every morning has been built using Ultratech cement and has aluminum roofing made possible by Hindalco Everlast. The copper in the wires and electronic equipment all over my house of which Hindalco is a leading producer. As I proceed to take my quick breakfast of bread and cheese, I wonder if the phosphate enrichment solutions provided by Aditya Birla Chemicals has been used to produce the cheese. I pack some of my breakfast using one of the various ABG aluminum foil brands. I make a quick phone call to my mother using my ever-reliable Vodafone India network while having breakfast which is the result of a merger with ABG owned Idea Cellular limited. I quickly put on my favorite Allen Solly shirt and Peter England trousers as I make my way to class. On my way to class, I take a print out of last week assignment for which the printer pigment was made possible by the ABG Carbon. Even the tires of the rides that I take subsequently have carbon black as an essential component of which ABG Carbon is a world leader. 

Even at a superficial level, looking at the ABG footprint one can make out the magnitude of impact a large conglomerate like ABG has one the lives of ordinary citizens and thereby the growth of the whole country. 

How I overcame challenges to achieve my ambitions in life so far?

If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.” ― Roopleen

Back in 2012, I took my JEE exam, but I couldn't clear it that year. Negative thoughts lingered on my mind & getting into an IIT, seemed to be an unachievable dream for me. My parents insisted me to join any college. Growing up in the small town of Dausa, I had always had big dreams for myself and this failure didn’t fit in the story. So, I decided that I would not give up because I wanted much more and I knew that my perseverance would make me deserve it as well. I persuaded my parents & started preparing for the next year. After relentless hard work came my admission letter for IIT Roorkee, but along with it also came the confidence of achievement after a failure. That one year gave me an opportunity to develop myself not only as a student but as an individual. Patience & confidence that I showed in those hard times helped me overcome that challenge. Everyone faces multiple challenges in life and you can’t go further and achieve something if you don’t have challenges to overcome. One of the other challenges that I faced was while I was preparing for CAT, I was very weak in Verbal ability and reading comprehension section. I got 50%ile in varc year before and it was very challenging to clear the cutoff (85%ile) this time. It took a lot of hard work, patience, analysis and positive mindset to not only achieve the target but to go beyond that and prove myself.