Well known Indian Industry veteran K K Birla is no more!

One of the stalwarts of the Indian Industry Krishna Kumar Birla is dead. He died at 07:30 AM today after a brief illness. He was 90. Birla was a former Rajya Sabha member, Chancellor of BITS, Pilani apart from being the chairman of several companies including the english newspaper Hindustan Times.

K K Birla had established one of India’s well known business conglomerate through brilliance of entrepreneurial genius and sheer hard work. His industrial empire spans across a wide spectrum of key industries like sugar, fertilizers, chemicals, heavy engineering, textiles, shipping, newspaper etc.

For 18 consecutive years K K Birla was a Member of Rajya Sabha. In the year 1961, he was elected Sheriff of Calcutta and in the year 1997, he was conferred Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Pondichery University. He has headed a number of Chambers of Commerce such as Indian Sugar Mills Association, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indian Chamber of Commerce and many such prominent organisations.

Mr. Birla established K.K. Birla Foundation which has instituted annual awards for excellence in Indian literature, scientific research, Indian philosophy etc. and K.K. Birla Academy to undertake research on scientific, cultural and historical subjects. The beautiful Radhakrishna Temple dedicated to Lord Krishna in Kolkata and the G.D. Birla Sabhagar in Kolkata are amongst his many social contributions.

Birla is survived by three daughters - Nandini Nupani, Saroj Potddar and Shobhana Bhartia, who is vice chairperson and editorial adviser of Hindustan Times. His wife Manorama Devi Birla had died about a month ago.

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