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| G.P. Birla |
Ganga Prasad Birla had retired from day-to-day business years back but that hardly stopped him from coming to the group headquarters at Birla Building on RN Banerjee road frequently.
He seldom missed an opportunity to catch up with cousin Basant Kumar over an afternoon cup of tea at the 16th floor of the Birla Building if he was in office. With the demise of GP yesterday, this familiar picture will never be replayed at the Birla headquarters.
Born in Benares on August 2, 1922 to B.M. Birla, GP had set up a number of large industrial undertakings such as Orient Paper and Industries, Hyderabad Industries Ltd and Nigeria Engineering Works during his youth.
Today, the group’s turnover is $1.2 billion and includes NEI, GMMCO, Hindustan Motors, Birlasoft, Avtec and Indian Smelting. People close to GP remember him as a simple man with empathy for common people. “He had a sharp memory which never failed him, despite age,” said one who had seen him for decades.
But Ganga Prasad will be best known for creating large educational, medical research and charitable trusts and institutions. Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute, Calcutta Hospital, B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre, Modern High School for Girls and Rukmani Birla High School are some of the institutions he had built over decades. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006.
In a letter to GP’s wife Nirmala Birla, President Pratibha Patil said the nation had lost an illustrious personality in the passing away of the 86-year-old industrialist. “G.P. Birla was an industrialist whose contribution to the establishment of various industrial enterprises helped in national development,” Patil said.