How Aditya Birla group changed the landscape As a teenager, growing
How Aditya Birla group changed the landscape
How Aditya Birla group changed the landscape
While India was struggling for its freedom and identity, there were visionaries who aspired greater heights for the nation. It was in the 1850s, when Mr. Ghanshyam Das Birla(the Group's founding father) set up industries in critical sectors such as textiles and fibre, aluminium, cement, and chemicals. From that era to now, Aditya Birla Group is not only in the league of Fortune 500 but has also been ranked fourth in the world and first in Asia Pacific in the ‘Top Companies for Leaders’ study 2011.
Aditya Birla Group or ABG, has touched millions of life in million ways. When I look back to my childhood days where most of my fond memories revolved around the tiffin boxes we shared, that is when I first felt the presence of ABG in my life. My mother trusted nothing but FRESHWRAPS to wrap my lunch. To be honest, this business group was present at all stages in our lives and we hardly ever noticed its impact. Idea Cellular network has provided me connectivity during my undergraduate course when I was trying to build a network with people all over the country. Pantaloons is what I have always relied on for quality clothing and even here the Aditya Birla Group never disappointed me as a customer. This year when I had to buy myself formal wears for B-School interviews, it was disheartening to see such few brands to offer choices to women. It was then that I found out that the two brands, ALLEN SOLLY and VAN HEUSEN that I am purchasing from also belong to my most trusted Aditya Birla Group. This company has also helped my family when the times were tough, Aditya Birla Sun Life mutual funds were a big support for my father, my family’s sole bread earner. His belief in the company stays strong till date.
A US $44.3 billion corporation, spread across 14 industry sectors and having being achieved global and national leadership in several businesses, the Aditya Birla Group is one such conglomerate whose presence is hard to miss in our everyday lives.
Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is a fortune 500 company generating revenues of US $44.3 billion employing over 120,000 employees belonging to 42 nationalities. They are a global powerhouse plying their trade in a wide range of sectors like textiles, carbon black, metals, cement and telecom. They have been recently ranked “Best Employer” for 2018 by Aon Hewitt in India. They also emerged as 'No.1 Corporate', the 'Best in Class' for the third back to back year according to Nielsen's Corporate Image Monitor 2014-15.
Going a decade back in my life, although the memories seem to be blurred, but all I can remember is how during the KBC season, there was an exclusive entry announced for the IDEA users and as it was my mothers dream to be a part of the show, she being a big fan of Big-B, thats how I got my first sim card (registered on my mothers name as I was just a school kid) along with a small Nokia device. KBC had become a daily routine in our lives back then, everyday 9pm, all eyes on the screen. Irrespective of whether we made through or not, I had got a new phone all to myself (as my mother already had a phone, so I was enjoying the company of the new handset I had got. In school I had become popular as not many of us had mobile phones back then. KBC went by season-by-season and I upgraded from purchasing SMS packs (100 messages a day) to Internet packs (1GB a month). Those days with the boom of Internet, I used to proudly call myself a student of IIN (Idea Internet Network). Time passed by, from school to college and college to job, things kept changing, world kept changing; but the only thing unchanged was my attachment to ABG. As I recieved the sms of my First Salary over the phone, all I thought was buying gifts for everyone. Then came Pantaloons into my life (FLAT 50% off), Shirt for my father, suit for my mother and a dress for my sister. Salaries kept coming and soon that Pantaloons discounted shirt became Peter England and Louis Philippe fresh stock items and the dresses started coming from Forever 21.
A year ago, I wanted to see village areas and decided to visit Rajasthan. I landed there and got a guide named Googlesh. I was hungry and ordered a burger on the highway and asked for a fresh wrap foil. I was amazed at the schools, roads and the internet speed. I asked Googlesh that how this happened. He started explaining the concept of model village and how a company Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is responsible for it. ABG has adopted 300 villages, below the poverty line, across India and its vision is to make the villages self- reliant in every aspect. 70 villages have already reached the level of model village. I asked “So, it only works in these 300 villages?”. Googlesh explained that it is present in 35 countries and working in every known sector like education, healthcare, infrastructure development, livelihood, fashion, communication etc. On my request, he explained every sector one by one. ABG works in 5,000 villages and started 5,000 medical camps and 20 hospitals where around 1 million patients have been treated. It has transformed 20 schools into model schools in Rajasthan. It has enhanced the livelihood through 4,500 self-help group for women empowerment. He said ABG group is around me all the time. Even the fresh wrap that I ordered, the internet, Idea, I was surfing. I was surprised and asked a lot of questions regarding ABG. In returning, I started connecting everything with ABG. The insulators installed in the powerplants are made by Grasim, which is owned by ABG. My clothes, shoes, googles, everything I got from pantaloons, was of ABG. Even the clothes I had from Van Heusen, Louis Phillipe, Peter England and planet fashion, at home, are of ABG. Suddenly, bus driver drifted the car and fortunately we didn’t catch the accident because of good road and tyres. I grabbed my phone, lying on the road and felt relieved that the screen is not broken. The screen was safe due to cover glass, which is made by Hindalco aluminium, a venture of ABG. By the way, the cement, UltraTech and carbon nanoparticle in tyres are also made by ABG. I also had an insurance of Birla Sun Life. I reached the railway station and was thinking about the copper used in railways. Googlesh said “yes, sir. Large share of it is provided by Birla copper”. I minimized Googlesh, closed my eyes and just smiled.