Aditya Birla – Upholding India's Ambitions - Ram Kumar, IIM Visakhapatnam

Aditya Birla Group has indirectly affected our lives by improving the standards of society as such. The CSR activities of Aditya Birla Group such as operates 56 schools, providing solar lamps to children, providing midday meals, etc. should be an eye-opener for all the other companies and people out there, as how big of an impact a conglomerate can have on people's lives. The group is giving a strong message to the future generations as to how it's essential to transform the nation not just for themselves but also for the betterment of every citizen.

A big conglomerate like Aditya Birla Group would have faced a lot of challenges, and with sheer determination and hard work they overcame all those. Challenges are essential for life cause it's a way to push your boundary and explore the unchartered territories. Here I would like to talk about the challenges I faced in my life and how I overcame all that.

I have a few achievements to talk about, but my biggest achievement was following one of my childhood dreams. It was achieving what every defence candidate would dream of getting shortlisted by a service selection board. From my childhood, I always had the inkling to join the Indian Armed Forces, which almost became true when I got a call letter from Air Force Service Selection Board Mysore. I got shortlisted from among the 250 candidates at the end of 6 days, which consisted of Group Discussions, Psychological test, Battery test, Physical test, Interview, and finally the Board conference. But the following medical check-up revealed an underlying medical condition which would reject my candidature and wouldn't allow me to appear for any defence forces. I had an existential crisis, the career which I wanted to pursue had ended, and I had not thought of any other career path to choose. But even in this failure, I found happiness in following one of my childhood dreams, and this had taught me a very precious lesson of putting a firm foot forward for what you believe and what you want to achieve irrespective of how things would pan out in the end.

 From a very young age, I was exposed to the technical terms of finance, the perks of having a father involved in Investment in NSE. I have always been intrigued by it. When I stepped into the corporate world later, I found that I am interested in the business side of things, and that led me to rediscover my interest in finance and market. So, I decided to do my MBA from a reputed institute. But studying for the CAT entrance exam with the busy schedule of work was tedious. The work usually extends late into the night, and the exhaustion kicks in after reaching home. I decided to keep a schedule and tried to stick to it as much as possible. Initially, it was difficult, but when I started to see the fruits of the hard work, I started to strictly maintain the schedule. Finally, all the hard work paid off, and it helped me in securing an admission in Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam.