Late Dr. Krishna Kumar Birla, son of legendary Late Syt. Ghanshyam Das Birla was born in Pilani, Rajasthan, on 12th October 1918. He joined the Sugar Industry in the year 1940 and was amongst the founder member of Indian Sugar Industry. He was the Chairman of Upper Ganges Sugar & Industries Ltd., The Oudh Sugar Mills Ltd. and Gobind Sugar Mills Ltd and was appointed the Chairman – Emeritus of all these companies in the year 2002 and remained so till his death in the year 2008.

Over the years, Dr. Birla had established one of India's well known business conglomerate through his brilliance in entrepreneurial genius and sheer hard work. He nurtured the K. K. Birla Group as one of the most respected Business Houses in India. The Group covers a wide canvas with interest in sugar, fertilizers, media, textiles, shipping, engineering, financial services, furniture, information technology, plantations and infrastructure sectors. One of his greatest achievements has been to earn the trust of his millions of shareholders, employees and customers, which has played a crucial role in his phenomenal growth.

Dr. Birla was a Member of Rajya Sabha for 18 consecutive years. In the year 1961, he was elected Sheriff of Calcutta and in the year 1997, he was conferred Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Pondichery University. He had chaired a number of Chambers of Commerce such as Indian Sugar Mills Association, Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indian Chamber of Commerce and many such prominent organizations. His numerous responsibilities include the Trusteeship of the Birla Education Trust, which runs a number of schools and institutions in the country offering subsidized education, and Chairmanship of the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) at Pilani and Dubai. Dr. Birla had established K.K. Birla Foundation which has instituted annual awards for excellence in Indian literature, scientific research, Indian philosophy etc. and K.K. Birla Academy to undertake research on scientific, cultural and historical subjects.

Late Dr. K. K Birla was an outstanding visionary, a business leader par excellence and a builder of modern educational and scientific institutions. He was a multi-dimensional industrialist, a caring philanthropist, an astute parliamentarian and an eminent scholar. He made an indelible mark in the field of industry, education, politics, art and culture. Late Dr. K. K Birla had a rare distinction of being a multi faceted personality but above all he was a humble humanist. The beautiful Radhakrishna Temple dedicated to Lord Krishna in Kolkata and the G.D. Birla Sabhagar in Kolkata are amongst his many social contributions bearing testimony to his self effacing humanity.

Late Dr. Krishna Kumar Birla left for his heavenly abode on 30th August, 2008. His autobiography, Brushes with History is replete with vignettes of Birla family’s close ties with historical personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad, B.C Roy, Jayaprakash Narayan & Moraji Desai, among others. The autobiography captures a vibrant era in the nation’s existence, which influenced Dr. Birla’s personal credo & later achievements. Dr. Birla has left behind a rich legacy for many to emulate.

Sugarcane is a perennial grass in the Poaceae family and is cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions for the sucrose that is found in its stems. It requires a frost-free climate with sufficient rainfall during the growing season to make full use of the plant's great growth potential. The crop is harvested mechanically or by hand, chopped into lengths and conveyed rapidly to the processing plant. Here it is either milled and the juice extracted with water or the sugar is extracted by diffusion. The juice is then purified with lime and heated to kill enzymes. 

The resulting thin syrup is then concentrated in a series of evaporators and then further water is removed by way of evaporation process in vacuum containers The resulting supersaturated solution is seeded with sugar crystals and the sugar crystallizes out and is separated from the fluid and dried. The crystals of raw sugar have a sticky brown coating and can either be used as they are or can be bleached by sulphur dioxide or treated in a carbonation process to produce a whiter product.