Apart from the infamous revolt for Independence, there is a lesser-known “revolution” which started in the year 1857, i.e., the revolution which would serve as a robust base for Independent India – The Aditya Birla Group. Little did anyone know that Seth Shiv Narayan Birla, a small cotton trading businessman in the small town of Pilani, Rajasthan has actually laid the foundation for a $44.3 billion conglomerate which would still be growing strong after 162 years.

From Clothing to Telecom and from Mining to a Payments Bank, the presence of the Group is virtually in every sector. Knowingly and unknowingly we buy and use goods and services offered by the group Pan-India.

A little research and self-reflecting have made me realize that my interaction with the group started as a kid buying apparel from Pantaloons and is still growing strong as I buy a suit from LOUIS PHILIPPE. Being the distributors of the DAP fertilizers ( Birla Balwan) for the last 25 years, I owe a lot to the group as a big chunk of our income comes from the sale of DAP offered by the group, a hit amongst our farmers.

In addition to the products and services we use, it’s the generations of omnipresent visionaries such as Shri Ghanshyamdas Birla and Shri Aditya Birla which have impacted me the most. Working on principles set up by its founding fathers and using them to make a positive impact on millions of lives across generations is something I aspire to and is something which drives me not only to achieve my own goals but also to look beyond them.

Part B - How I overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far

Like most of the budding engineers of my generation, belonging to a small town, in the 11th standard I was also sent to get the rigorous coaching and crack the IIT-JEE exam. And thus I enrolled in the first batch of a “School-Integrated Program” offered by a famous coaching institute in Delhi.

Geographically it was only 80 km from my house in Rewari, Haryana but the social, cultural and educational gap was immeasurable. Although everything was just better in every way possible, very convenient and there was a lot of opportunities, it was also intimidating, to say the least. The “local kids” in my class were more mature, smarter, more intelligent and intuitive. Also, being the first batch, initially there were a lot of major hiccups on the hostel front. There were constant electricity cuts and a lack of generator was considered only a “minor hindrance” by the lot of us. All of these inconveniences and the major cultural shock imbibed in me a sense of insecurity which took a lot of time to wither away.

Alas, I could not make it to the IIT but I still managed to get the second-best, i.e., Delhi Technological University (formerly DCE) which is also a big achievement. In my four years at the university, I visited IIT Delhi a lot and I contemplated a lot on the opportunities I could have grasped only if…

As I am sitting here writing this article from IIM Sirmaur, I consider myself privileged that I could manage to crack my second dream of getting into an IIM, learning from the challenges I have faced so far.

Satyam Mittal

Aditya Birla Group - A Saga ~ Satyam S Mittal, IIM Sirmaur