Ananya Birla: More the merrier

Ananya Birla has her fingers in three diverse ventures, and has few problems doing justice to each

By
Salil Panchal
Last Updated: Sep 21, 2018, 10:28 IST2 min
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Through her singing, Ananya Birla wants to reach out to people and make a difference to their livesImage:Aditi TailangBeing born into one of the country’s most well respected business families is one thing trying to make a name for oneself by breaking out of the traditional businesses is another. That is what Ananya Birla, the eldest daughter of Kumar Mangalam Birla—the world’s 127th richest and India’s sixth with a net worth of $11.8 billion, according to the 2018 Forbes billionaires’ list—has started to do, as an entrepreneur-singer.

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At 24, Ananya runs three diverse ventures: One provides microfinance and now housing loans another, with her mother Neerja, deals with mental health disorders and the third, CuroCarte, sells handmade lifestyle products through an ecommerce venture. At a personal level, Ananya is well-entrenched into a successful singing career as well—with three certified platinum singles, as per the Indian Music Industry, a trust that represents the country’s recording industry distributors.

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736 crore as of August 2018, 3.5 lakh active clients and disbursed over ₹3.5 lakh per person.

The origins of mental health venture Mpower go back to a telephonic conversation Ananya had with her mother when studying at Oxford University in 2015. Founded in 2016, Mpower has 1,200 clients and has completed 10,000 therapy sessions. “Discussing mental health is a stigma in India. We are working on an anonymous helpline for corporate clients, which could be operational in three months,” Ananya says. Mpower runs a centre and a foundation the centre has a core team of psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists to treat a range of mental health issues—behavioural, occupational and speech-related. The foundation offers its services to low-income groups.

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Ananya shares each day with teams from each of her ventures, besides engaging in her singing practice which “offers her a constant high in life”. With her latest dance-pop single ‘Circles’ going platinum, there are plans for an acoustic version as well.

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Ananya says she will continue to juggle what, from the outside, are two different professions. “I will continue to operate in all segments and contribute towards the growth of our economy. But I also want to, through my singing, reach out to people, to make a difference in their lives.”

First Published: Sep 21, 2018, 10:28

Ananya BirlaSvatantra Microfinance
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