The story of Birla's and their Cement City- Jayant Jain,SIBM Bengaluru

I hail from Satna ,a small town in MP and like every other small town it has its unique story which was started and steered by Birla family. In 1910 our quiet small town got something which became its identity for the years to come. The Great Ghanshayam Das Birla founded the iconic MP Birla cement factory, a state of the art industrial marvel that changed the destiny of our town and made it a little more famous as the cement city of India. There is a saying in our town that only Birlas understand the cement business in Satna which proved itself when Aditya Birla group(Ultratech Cement) acquired Jaypee cement plant in Rewa a neighbouring town near Satna. The Birla Group’s iconic plant became inspiration for a lot of people like me who come from humble background to do something big with our lives. The visit to the cement plant was the day I decided I want to be a Mechanical engineer and gave me a direction in life. The Birla's cement plants created a cluster of industries and supported hundreds of Small scale industries. One such small industry was started in 1994 by my grandfather by the name of Ken’s cement Products which manufactured cement pipes. Availability of raw material was never a concern for us because companies like Ultratech were always there to ensure best quality cement at the right price. I often think where all our life would have been if we didn’t had people like G.D Birla and Aditya Birla Investing in the growth of our town providing Business families like ours with an opportunity to grow along with them. I sometimes wonder if G.D Birla had not decided to start a factory back then would I be sitting here in my Louis Philippe shirt eating a sandwich wrapped in Fresh wrap, browsing high speed 4G internet powered by Vodafone-Idea to find out how I can invest my money in Aditya birla Sun Life Mutual funds.