Kumar Mangalam is audacious, always striving for perfection: Rajashree Birla

The Financial Express
14 August 2014

Rajashree Birla, who heads the CSR arm of Aditya Birla group, today said her son Kumar Mangalam was "audacious and always striving for perfection".

"Kumar Mangalam is an audacious and hardworking person and always striving for perfection. When he took charge of the group in 1995, the size was USD two billion, which is now USD 40 billion," she said at an interaction organised by MCCI here.

From eight countries in 1995, the group is present in 36 countries in the world under Kumar’s leadership, Birla said adding that her son was also endowed with a philosophical attitude with nobility.

Terming her husband Aditya Birla as a "true karmayogi", she said, "I consider him as my greatest guru in life".

"Even when India was not liberalised, he set his sights beyond the Indian shores and showed sheer courage and clairvoyance," she said, adding that he was the pillar of strength for the entire family.

"Let me share a personal moment with Aditya. Before he slipped into coma at John Hopkins Hospital in the US and everybody (herself, son Kumar and daughter-in-law Neerja) was praying for a miracle, he said to us `be brave'."

Birla also said she was also fortunate to have mother-in-law like Sarala Birla and father-in-law B K Birla and was really grateful to them.

Coming from an old-school background, she said that the first preference of a woman would be to bring up the family and building a career should come second.