The Aditya Birla Group is one of India’s largest conglomerates with roots dating back to the 19th century. The group's founder, Ghanshyamdas Birla, was a prominent supporter of Mohandas Gandhi, who led India's struggle for independence. Today, the group's interests in metals, cement, textiles, apprel, telecommunications and finance. Its group turnover in 2015-16 was $42 billion. The group has embarked on a journey to embed human rights in its sustainability framework. Tony Henshaw is the group's chief sustainability officer. A chartered electrical engineer who has worked on urban transport projects in Korea, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, Henshaw has worked with Shell in Bolivia and the Mexican cement group, Cemex, and the Vedanta group in India, before coming to the Aditya Birla Group. Vidya Tikoo has a doctorate in environmental biotechnology and had been an environmental consultant before joining the Aditya Birla Group, where she is vice president (sustainability framework). She is responsible for developing the group's global sustainability framework documents which align with the group's sustainability model.
In Mumbai in February, Henshaw and Tikoo spoke to IHRB's Salil Tripathi about the rationale behind embedding human rights within the sustainability framework, the path the company has chosen, the need to align the framework with the UN Guiding Principles