Business of Birla family
G. D. Birla inherited the family business and moved to further diversify them into other areas. Of these, at least three contemporary family business groups in India can trace their ancestry to him. Of these businesses, he wanted to turn the moneylending business into manufacturing. So he left for Calcutta in Bengal Presidency, the world's largest jute producing region. There, he began "independently as a jute broker". In 1918, he established Birla Jute Mills, much to the consternation of established European merchants, whom the biased policies of the British government favoured over than the local Bengali merchants. He had to overcome a number of obstacles as the British and Scottish merchants tried to shut his business, but he was able to persevere. When World War I resulted in supply constraints throughout the British Empire, Birla's business skyrocketed.
With an investment of ₹5 million in 1919, the Birla Brothers Limited was formed. A mill was set up in Gwalior in the same year.
In 1926, he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly of British India. He became the first president of Harijan Sevak Sangh founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi in 1932.
In the 1940s, he ventured into the territory of cars and established Hindustan Motors. After independence, Birla invested in tea and textiles through a series of acquisitions of erstwhile European companies. He also expanded and diversified into cement, chemicals, rayon and steel tubes. Ghanshyam Das Birla during the Quit India Movement of 1942, had conceived the idea of organising a commercial bank with Indian capital and management, and the United Commercial Bank Limited was incorporated to give shape to that idea. UCO Bank, formerly United Commercial Bank, established in 1943 in Kolkata, is one of the oldest and major commercial banks of India.
