By fifteen years of age, he was already actively associated with a large number of companies and eventually became the chairman of Kesoram Industries.[when?]

In this role, he concentrated on the industries of cotton, viscose, polyester and nylon yarns, refractory, paper, shipping, tyrecord, transparent paper, spun pipe, cement, tea, coffee, cardamom, chemicals, plywood, MDF Board, etc.

In 1959, he established the Indo Ethiopian Textiles Share Company, which was the first major joint venture by any Indian industrialist.

[1] On 13 April 1942, he married Sarala, the daughter of activist and writer Brijlal Biyani, after having been introduced to each other by Jamnalal Bajaj and Mahatma Gandhi in 1941.

They had a son, Aditya Vikram Birla and two daughters, Jayashree Mohta and Manjushree Khaitan.