On the 3rd of July 2019, the patriarch of Birla Group, Mr. Basant Kumar Birla passed away at the age of 98.
He was the Chairman of the BK Birla Group of Companies, the Krishnarpan Charity Trust and a host of educational institutions, one of which is the BK Birla Institute of Engineering and Technology.
The Birla Public School in Qatar and the BK Birla College of Arts, Commerce, and Science in Kalyan was developed by him.
From a very young age, BK Birla was very actively associated with a group of companies owned by his family. He was the youngest son of industrialist and philanthropist GD Birla. At the beginning of his career, he succeeded to become the chairman of Kesoram Industries.
The first Indian industrialist to establish the Indo-Ethiopian Textiles Share company was BK Birla. He was also awarded a medal of the Menelik II, by the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie I, which is the highest Ethiopian Award.
He is survived by his daughters Jayashree Mohta and Manjushree Khaitan. His son, Aditya Vikram Birla, father of Kumar Mangalam Birla, died on October 1995.