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Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Worli, Mumbai, India.[5][6] It operates in 35 countries with more than 120,000 employees worldwide.[7] The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. The group has interests in viscose staple fibre, metals, cement (largest in India), viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbonblack, chemicals, fertilisers, insulators, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services. The group had a revenue of approximately US$44.3 billion in year 2018.[3][8] It is the third-largest Indian private sector conglomerate behind Tata Group with revenue of just over US$100 billion and RIL with revenue of US$74 billion. A US $41 billion conglomerate, the Aditya Birla Group is in the League of Fortune 500. The Group is anchored by an extraordinary force of over 1,20,000 employees, belonging to 42 nationalities, spanning 36 countries. Over 50 per cent of the Group’s revenues flow from its overseas operations. The Aditya Birla Group enjoys a leadership position in all the sectors in which it operates – metals, cement, carbon black, speciality chemicals, viscose staple fibre, viscose filament yarn, acrylic fibre, textiles, telecom, financial services, retail, branded apparel, natural resources, agri-solutions, power and trading. Its products and services touch every person’s life uniquely. A value-led, performancedriven, customer-centric meritocracy, the Aditya Birla Group has topped Nielsen’s Corporate Image Monitor 2014-15 and emerged as the Number 1 corporate, the ‘Best in Class’, for the third consecutive year. The Group works in 5,000 villages, reaching out to 7 million people across geographies through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, spearheaded by Mrs Rajashree Birla. Aditya Birla Group today said it donated funds to political outfits through a trust for around 15 years and that these were done within permissible limits of the country's laws. "...we wish to state that the Trust was set by some of our Group companies for making donations to political parties after the Companies Act was amended, permitting such contributions," the Group, now being probed for its alleged involvement in a coal block allocation matter, said in a release. The group has denied any wrongdoing in coal allocation matter. The group's statement came after media reports that CBI, during search operations in its offices, had recovered a diary containing records of nearly 1,000 payments made to politicians and MPs by the trust. "The contributing companies after serious deliberations and based on the best international practice in this regard, decided to create a trust called 'General Electoral Trust' in 1998. "Its sole purpose is of making contributions to various political parties/individuals, nominated by political parties and to independent candidates standing for parliamentary or state assembly elections," Aditya Birla Group said. The trust, a non-profit organisation, made political contributions only to those political parties/candidates who were registered with Election Commission of India. "All contributions are duly accounted for and reflected in the audited published accounts of the contributing companies," the group said. The trustees, it said, are independent persons of repute such as retired Mumbai Police Commissioner J F Ribero and former IDBI Chairman G P Gupta. Business houses spanning sectors, such as manufacturing, power & oil, mining and real estate, donated Rs 378.89 crore to political parties in the last eight years. In fact, business donations constituted 87 per cent of the total contribution to political parties from known sources, establishing the growing link between corporate money and politics, says an analysis by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Among corporates, the Aditya Birla group was the top donor to both the key national parties -- Congress and BJP-- followed by the Gujarat-based Torrent Power, as declared by the parties to the Election Commission. Congress and BJP also received foreign funding between 2003-04 and 2011-12 of Rs 983.50 lakh and 1,942.50 lakh, respectively, by companies such as the Vedanta group (Sesa Goa, The Madras Aluminium Co, Sterlite Industries), Public and Political Awareness Trust of Vedanta, Hyatt Regency and Dow Chemicals. “Political parties are not permitted to accept contributions from foreign companies or companies controlled in India by foreign companies,” said ADR, which has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking action against the two national parties. Among the national parties, BJP got the maximum corporate donations of Rs 192.47 crore from 1,334 entities, followed by Congress, which got Rs 172.25 crore from 418 corporate/business donors. Sector-wise dole The highest political donations were made by firms in the manufacturing sector (595 donations worth Rs 99.71 crore), followed by 340 donations (Rs 24.10 crore) from the real estate sector. The communications sector (including media) donated Rs 13.26 crore, followed by Rs 3.67 crore by the shipping & transport business. Congress seemed a favourite with the mining, construction, export/import sector which donated Rs 23.07 crore to the party, while the BJP got the highest donations from the realty sector at Rs 17.01 crore. Electoral trusts, too, donated the maximum amount of Rs 70.28 crore to the Congress (which has been ruling at the Centre since 2004) , while the BJP got the highest amount from the manufacturing sector at Rs 58.18 crore, followed by Rs 17.06 crore from the power & oil sectors. Interestingly, 301 donors contributing Rs 25.28 crore to these national parties have not declared either their PAN details or address in the contribution form. Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have donated Rs 20,000 in a financial year to the Election Commission. About 75 per cent of the sources of funding of political parties is, however, unknown, says ADR. For 2012-13, other than Congress and CPI(M), no other national party has submitted its donations report, ADR said.