The world is seeing the emergence of a deals-based global order, with geopolitical outcomes being shaped by negotiated arrangements rather than established rules, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Wednesday.
“The contracts between nation states are being recrafted, as earlier diplomatic finesse is replaced with stark realpolitik,” Birla said in his annual reflections letter.
In January 2025, Birla had said that the ‘Trump Factor’ could disproportionately influence 2025 as it held the potential to reshape global dynamics. He had said that the year would be the one when an unorthodox, unpredictable and an uncertain world will be embraced.
“That description still holds, and every passing week imbues it with deeper meaning,” he said in his note this year. “We now operate in a geopolitical marketplace, where energy partners differ from technology allies, and yesterday’s friends may not share tomorrow’s agenda.”
He lauded India’s growth for its consistency, and said that in a deals-based world like the current, scale, credibility and continuity matter, and that India is increasingly offering all the three. Growth in the nation has also enabled various companies of the Aditya Birla Group to grow with it, not just as a beneficiary, but as an enabler, Birla said.
UltraTech Cement, which is now the largest cement producer in the world by sales volumes outside of China, can produce more than 190 million tonnes (mt) of cement each year, up more than three-fold from the 60 mt a decade back. “In many ways, this growth is a response to a nation building at speed,” Birla remarked.
An increase in formal credit to smaller enterprises has also helped the group’s non-banking finance company’s loan book surge to 1.5 lakh crore from Rs 17,000 crore in a decade. A steady rise in consumption and spending by households has also validated the group’s ambition behind its recent consumer businesses.
“It has been particularly striking to see how trust in the Aditya Birla brand has translated into consumer affinity across these businesses. This has reaffirmed a conviction I hold strongly: our brand is our hidden superpower,” he said.
In Hindalco, where the group started investments in its downstream business as a counterintuitive move in 2018, it has emerged as the only downstream metals producer in the country with this depth and breadth of capability, Birla said. End
“The contracts between nation states are being recrafted, as earlier diplomatic finesse is replaced with stark realpolitik,” Birla said in his annual reflections letter.
In January 2025, Birla had said that the ‘Trump Factor’ could disproportionately influence 2025 as it held the potential to reshape global dynamics. He had said that the year would be the one when an unorthodox, unpredictable and an uncertain world will be embraced.
“That description still holds, and every passing week imbues it with deeper meaning,” he said in his note this year. “We now operate in a geopolitical marketplace, where energy partners differ from technology allies, and yesterday’s friends may not share tomorrow’s agenda.”
He lauded India’s growth for its consistency, and said that in a deals-based world like the current, scale, credibility and continuity matter, and that India is increasingly offering all the three. Growth in the nation has also enabled various companies of the Aditya Birla Group to grow with it, not just as a beneficiary, but as an enabler, Birla said.
UltraTech Cement, which is now the largest cement producer in the world by sales volumes outside of China, can produce more than 190 million tonnes (mt) of cement each year, up more than three-fold from the 60 mt a decade back. “In many ways, this growth is a response to a nation building at speed,” Birla remarked.
An increase in formal credit to smaller enterprises has also helped the group’s non-banking finance company’s loan book surge to 1.5 lakh crore from Rs 17,000 crore in a decade. A steady rise in consumption and spending by households has also validated the group’s ambition behind its recent consumer businesses.
“It has been particularly striking to see how trust in the Aditya Birla brand has translated into consumer affinity across these businesses. This has reaffirmed a conviction I hold strongly: our brand is our hidden superpower,” he said.
Vodafone Idea, Hindalco
Vodafone Idea, the group’s joint venture for telecom, will now be able to focus on sustainable growth rather than just survival, Birla said. “With long-standing uncertainty removed through the clarity of the Honourable Supreme Court’s judgment and the government’s decisive intervention, the operating environment has fundamentally changed,” he said.In Hindalco, where the group started investments in its downstream business as a counterintuitive move in 2018, it has emerged as the only downstream metals producer in the country with this depth and breadth of capability, Birla said. End
