Noted Industrialist Basant Kumar Birla, passes away in Mumbai on Wednesday at the age of 98.

Basant Kumar Birla was an Indian businessman of the Birla family. He was chairman of the Krishnarpan Charity Trust, BK Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology (BKBIET) and various educational trusts and institutes.

In April 1941, he married Sarla, the daughter of activist and writer Brijlal Biyani, after having been introduced to each other by Jamnalal Bajaj and Mahatma Gandhi. They had a son, Aditya Vikram Birla, and two daughters, Jayashree Mohta and Manjushree Khaitan.

He was the chairman of the Krishnarpan Charity Trust, which runs an engineering college named BK Birla Institute of Engineering & Technology in Pilani, Rajasthan, the Swargashram Trust, which administers a Sanskrit school in Rishikesh. He also established Birla Public School in Qatar and the Birla College of Arts, Science & Commerce in Kalyan near Mumbai. He is the author of several books, including an autobiography entitled Svantah Sukhaya.

Birla died on 3 July 2019, at the age of 98.