India Inc bullish on growth story: KM Birla
India Inc.'s conviction in the country's growth prospects is possibly the highest in a long time and capital discipline is being mistaken for lack of
India Inc.'s conviction in the country's growth prospects is possibly the highest in a long time and capital discipline is being mistaken for lack of commitment toward expanding capacities, said Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, at The Economic Times World Leaders Forum.There is enough capacity buildout happening on the ground with new plants springing up across the country and bank loan numbers pointing to robust economic activity, said the chief of the cement to consumer conglomerate valued at more than $118 billion. "I don't think we should confuse capital discipline with conviction about India,'' Birla said in a fireside chat with ET's Sruthijith KK. "Advances to corporates from banks have gone up by 20% compared to last year... and that is pretty evenly spread between small and medium enterprises as well." While the macro economy has been growing at the fastest pace among major peers, Indian industry is being blamed for not being aggressive in expanding capacities as new plants are coming up slower than in the past. Companies which binged on debt in the past cycles have been deleveraging and are a lot more cautious in expanding capacities to avoid repeating past mistakes. Birla, whose group itself has lined up $30 billion to expand capacities, said investment decisions are taken considering several factors including returns, volatility, industry needs and global events. "It is more of a capital discipline exercise,'' he said.ALSO READ | India Inc’s got all it takes to roll out ‘World+1’ model, says KM BirlaIn the last few years, the Aditya Birla Group has grown across most of its businesses amid a pandemic, wars, interest rate hikes, tariffs and energy shocks.
The global economy seems to have grown "shock absorbers" in this period, and individual economies as well as corporations are learning to deal with a lot more stress, Birla said. "There are no more perma-friends or perma-enemies. There are only perma-issues," he said. The diversified conglomerate has taken a contrarian view in this period to grow across its traditional as well as new growth platforms. "It's been a two-part strategy," Birla said. For its overseas businesses, the group wants to be a "multi-local," setting up manufacturing plants close to consumers. "So, we have the supply chain flexibility and are not impacted by tariff wars or geopolitical bigotries," he said.ALSO READ | ET WLF 2026: Private players discuss India’s path from defence importer to global powerHindalco Industries' integrated aluminium plant being set up at Bay Minette in North America for a capital expenditure of $5 billion, for instance, is meant to primarily cater to customers in North America, Birla said.The growth in businesses in India, meanwhile, is reflecting the country's economy and its story, he said. "You need a strong economy to produce strong businesses. People talk about China+1 for India, and whilst that's a convenient shorthand, it's intellectually very lazy," Birla said. The narrative for India should now move to World+1, given that India has the capabilities and track record, and can be a "growth engine" for the world, he said.Lack of ease in doing business is not unique to India and almost every country and region has its own issues, he said, citing an example of how in an advanced economy one of his companies had to shift the plant's location due to environmental issues after working on it for months.
"We are not the only people who have issues like land, environment, judicial, local laws etc," he said.The Aditya Birla Group is the largest producer of cement, refined copper, cellulosic fibre in the country besides housing the largest branded and lifestyle entity. It is also one of the largest producers of aluminium domestically, and a dominant player in paints, telecom and non-banking financial services. Several of its businesses are seeing high competitive intensity. "An important part of running a business is to compete and compete well. And risk-taking is an important part too, or you might as well not be in business," he said. While it is good to have a "rear view" of competition, the group focuses on doing what it does best-running plants and investing deeply in its ecosystems, he said. "We have very deep customer relationships. We have increased capacity exponentially. When you have been in industries for a long time, there is an accumulated knowledge that you have the advantage of," he said.Birla said the telecom business, which has been challenging for years, has turned the corner and it would be a credible and a profitable "number three" player as it invests in 4G and 5G.Novelis, its North American aluminium business, has stabilised after a fire accident and is ramping up. Plans to list are off the table as the company hasn't been getting the valuation that it hoped for.
"We have no compulsion to do an IPO. There is no need for us to raise funds, so I don't see that happening now at all," he said.The world's largest producer of flat-rolled aluminium products, Novelis was to have listed in the US in 2024. "We put back the plans at that time because we were not getting the kind of value discovery that we thought or hoped we would or we were told we would. There was no other reason to want to list," Birla said.Hindalco's focus would now be to commission and ramp up the plant at Bay Minette, which will be pivotal for the company's future, he said.
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