Born into one of the largest business families of India, he oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications.

He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Egypt.

[3] His grandfather Ghanshyam Das Birla was an associate of Mahatma Gandhi and had built his fortune on aluminium prospecting and as the manufacturer of the Ambassador car.

[2] After attending St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, he earned a degree in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[2] He was married to Rajashree[4] and had a daughter Vasavadatta and a son Kumar Mangalam,[2] who now heads the Aditya Birla Group.

His Eastern Spinning Mills in Calcutta (Kolkata) quickly became a success, putting the group's sinking rayon and textile business back on track.

In 1975, The Indo Phil Group of companies, the first Indo-Filipino joint venture, commenced production of spun yarn.

The Aditya Vikram Birla won Kalashikhar and Kalakiran Puraskar awards for excellence in theatre and performing arts are given every year, were instituted in 1996 by the Sangeet Kala Kendra (SKK), which was founded in 1973 by Aditya Vikram Birla to encourage performing arts.