Dead Celebrity Alert

October 12, 1918 - August 30, 2008

The Birla industrial conglomerate, a household name for more than a century, is rooted in the old and the new India, spanning British India, the disastrous era of protectionist socialism in the first 45 years of independence and the introduction of economic liberalisation that has transformed a puny economy into a world player.

The man who started the business empire is part of Indian political and industrial history, Ghanshyam Das Birla. The man substantially responsible for taking that work into the stratosphere was Krishna Kumar Birla, a quiet-spoken, erudite, religious man with — for a tycoon — an uncommon interest in business ethics.

Known everywhere by the respectful Babu, meaning “boss” or “brother”, he was part of the massive expansion of the Birla empire in every corner of the Indian economy, including sugar, fertiliser production, heavy engineering, media and shipping. A famous flagship of the company, although economically irrelevant to it, is the Delhi-based Hindustan Times, one of India’s biggest dailies. … Read full obituary

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