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Birla Group

June 3, 2007 – 11:02 pm

By the Birla Group reference is made to one of the foremost business houses in India headed by the Birla family for generations. Its business interests are vast and varied ranging from petrochemicals and textiles to automobiles and Infocom as well as financial services.

The story of the Birla Group goes back to 1870 when Seth Shiv Narayan Birla, belonging to the Marwari community of West Rajasthan, set up a cotton and jute trading business in Pilani, Rajasthan. In the 19th century Baldeo Das Birla, son of Shiva Narayana Birla, moved to Calcutta. At that time Calcutta was the hub of activity of the British Empire and consequently the nascent Freedom Movement. The Birlas are proud of their closeness and support to the movement and was very near to Mahatma Gandhi. Even today, about two hundred years after the beginning of the Birla story, the name is identical with not only with wealth and power but also with dignity and respect. Business runs in their veins and each generation has been a credit to the legendary name of Birla.

In 1919 the Ghanashyam Das Birla, one of the four sons of Baldeo Das Birla, set up jute mills in West Bengal and thus laid the foundation for the beginning of the Birla industrial empire. In 1947 the Birlas set up Grasim weaving plant and from 1958 added rayon to the list.

Aditya Birla, grandson of Ghanashyam Das Birla, continued successfully with the legacy he had inherited. In 1969 he began to take giant strides outside India targeting international expansion. In Thailand the Birlas set up Indo-Thai synthetics. It was followed in 1978 by Carbon Black production also in Thailand. In 1988 Indo-Gulf was formed under the name of Hindalco for production fertilizers. Unfortunately in 1995 Aditya Birla died.

The son of Aditya Birla, Kumar Mangalam Birla, picked up the Birla flag. As part of the first step towards streamlining and restructuring AT &T was formed. In 1998 Indo-Gulf copper production started. In the same year Birla entered Canada with the purchase of Atholville Pulp Mill in New Brunswick. In 1999 Birla forayed into the financial arena and entered into a joint venture with Canada’s Sun Life. The beginning of the new century saw Birla AT&T merge with Tata Communications. Hindalco acquired Indal. In 2002 Indo Gulf fertilizers started and Anapurna Foils was acquired. In 2003 Nifty copper and Mt. Gordon copper mines in Australia are acquired by Birla. Liaonig Birla was started as the beginning of a joint venture with China in the field of carbon black. Indal merged with Hindalco the following year. A new aluminum venture was started in Orissa in 2005. In the same year St. Anne Nackawic Pulp Mill is acquired in Canada. Plans are now afoot to set up a new viscose stable fiber plant in Laos.

The Birla group has aptly laid out its objectives to be a premium international conglomerate with a clear focus on each and every business unit.  Birla’s mission is to deliver the very best to its customers, shareholders and employees bearing in mind its commitment to the welfare of society at large. Birla values are all about integrity, commitment, zeal, seamlessness and speed.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, born in 1967, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, is bearing the Birla torch with credit. Fortune magazine has listed him as the eighth youngest billionaire outside India. He is running major companies such as Grasim, Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Biral Nuvo and Idea Cellular.  JV’s include Birla Sun Life (financial services) and Birla NGK (Insulators). He is the Chairman of the entire blue chip companies group in India and serves as director on the board of the group’s international companies stretching across Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Egypt. The wide circle includes Canada, China, Laos, USA, UK and Australia. Kumar Mangalam Birla is also on the board of G.D. Biral Medical research and education Foundation and member of the Board of the governors of BITS, Pilani. He is a member of London Business School’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board, which counsels on strategy and curriculum. He is honorary fellow of London Business School. The media has not been left behind in heaping him with accolades. Both NDTV and Hindustan Times have voted him as the Businessman of the Year.

Aditya Birla Management Corporation is worth $8 billion and operates in more than fifteen countries. It is one of the first of India’s truly multinational corporations. A vast force of 88,000 employees belonging to twenty different nations holds this $12 billion conglomerate together. More than 23% of its revenues come in from operations outside India. Apart from India, the manufacturing units are in countries like Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, Australia, China, USA, UK, Germany and Hungary. The listed products are viscose stable fibre, non-ferrous metals, cement, viscose filament yarn, branded apparel, carbon black, chemicals, fertilizers, sponge iron, insulators, financial services, telecom. BPO and IT services. The global position of Birla is worth noting. Birla is first in production of viscose stable fiber, third in insulators, fourth in carbon black, eleventh in cement and fourth in aluminum.  It claims to be the largest single location of custom copper smelting, and has the most energy efficient fertilized plant amongst fifteen to world’s top BPO companies. In this field India ranks among the top three.

Business runs through the blood and genes of the Birlas. The family has divided into many branches and of them another prominent name is that of M.P. Birla and his group of companies known as the M.P. Birla Group. M.P. Birla, the son of R.D. Birla, was another grandson of Baldeo Das Birla. This Birla group has over five hundred factories covering a wide range of industries – textiles, man-mad fibers, cables, woolens, automobiles, industrial and textile machines, sugar, paper, shipping, cement, jute, aluminum, copper, fertilizers, chemicals, power plants etc. the M.P. Birla Group carries on forty joint ventures and management contracts with Nigeria, Kenya, England, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Uganda, Ethiopia, The names of the M.P. Birla group of companies are Birla corporation Ltd, Universal Cables Ltd, Vindhya Telelinks Ltd, Birla Ericsson Optical Ltd and Optic Fibre Goa Ltd. These have headquarters in Calcutta, Satna, Rewa Salcete, Bhiwani and Mumbai.
Despite unavoidable doses of litigation and friction the Birla name continues to shine doing credit to India.