Commodities king Kumar Birla is the fourth generation head of the storied, $45 billion (revenue) Aditya Birla Group. The group's interests span cement and aluminium to telecom and financial services. Birla inherited the family empire at age 28 when his father Aditya Birla died in 1995. In October 2019, the European Commission approved the $2.6 billion acquisition by his Novelis of Aleris, an aluminium producer in Ohio. In August 2021, he stepped down as chairman of debt-strapped telecom firm Vodafone Idea, formed by the 2018 merger between his Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.
