Vikas Varg Dwitiya. I have had the privilege on many occasions to meet with and interact with Bhagwat ji. In every meeting, his simplicity, his humility, and his unwavering dedication to nation-building always inspire me. After every conversation, my faith in India's future becomes even stronger. The clarity in his thoughts, the determination in his resolve, and his devotion to serving the country are truly remarkable.
A few days ago, Bhagwat ji told me that to understand the Sangh, one must look at it from the inside. Perhaps that is true. But even looking from the outside, no one can help but be impressed by this massive organization built through decades of hard work: 83,000 shakhas, 6 million volunteers, 177,000 service projects, and countless institutions—all working towards a common purpose. In any society, this is unprecedented. From pre-independence India through earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, wars, pandemics, and countless challenges across the country, the RSS has always stood with the nation and society.
That to me is the enduring strength of the Sangh: a belief that service must grow with purpose and that nation-building and character-building are lifelong commitments that we must make. In 2025, the Sangh completed 100 years. 100 years is no small feat. Back in 1925, India was just a fifth of the population that we have today. Centuries of servitude had perhaps weakened our self-confidence. But today, India is the world's sixth largest economy and we are advancing very rapidly. Prime Minister Modi often speaks of the coming Amrit Kaal—an era that will take India to new heights. This unique confluence of demographic dividends and tailwinds, infrastructure, digital rails, and financial services provides us with an opportunity that comes only once in the lifetime of a nation.
Even though these are challenging times, this is India's time. The world has been caught between the competing ambitions of superpowers. Over the last three years, crude oil prices skyrocketed due to wars, then suddenly dropped and reached new heights again. Supply chains are once again stressed for the third time this decade. And finally, AI is standing at our doorstep. This AI revolution is likely to transform economies and impact many more people than any other recent technological invention. This global flux has not had equal outcomes, and the challenge for India is that this flux exists at a time when India is set to begin its Amrit Kaal—at the threshold of its Amrit Kaal. But the biggest lesson history teaches us is the importance of building national capability and national resilience.
Many people might not know, but Aditya Birla Group's flagship company, Grasim, was incorporated just 10 days after our independence. It was born at a moment when a young nation was confronting immense uncertainty and scarcity, and yet brimming with hope and ambition. My great-grandfather, G.D. Birla ji, saw the disruption caused by partition. When partition happened, the cotton fields remained in Pakistan, and that became a very big challenge for India's textile industry. Rather than accept dependence as destiny, instead of accepting that situation, he saw an opportunity to build capability. He thought it was necessary for us to build capability. In place of cotton, he started the production of man-made fibers—a new nation's new thinking. Today, 80 years after that decision, Grasim is a global leader in building materials, chemicals, and fibers, serving millions of customers and contributing to India's industrial strength.
Self-reliance is not just an economic policy, but the foundation of nation-building. There are many similarities in the activities of the Aditya Birla Group and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. We also place immense importance on primary and higher education, healthcare, social upliftment, women empowerment, and skill development. For example, BITS Pilani is one of the premier Institutes of Eminence in the country. Every year, around 4,000 students graduate from here and make significant contributions to the development of the nation. Along with that, 65 schools across various states of the country are part of our social initiatives, where around 60,000 students receive a quality education. In our schools as well, greater emphasis is placed on personality development. Self-reliance, after all, is about capability. It is about having the confidence to build what a nation needs, the patience to invest for the long term, and the resilience to adapt as the world changes around us.
Through industry, a nation can be built and can grow. I still remember my grandmother often telling me, 'I want you to be an asset to the nation.' My understanding of nation-building has been shaped in large measure by lived experience. It comes partly from observing the actions and choices of previous generations of my family who believed deeply that corporations should serve a larger national purpose. It is essential for companies to align with a larger national objective. And it comes from the privilege of working in and learning from a diverse range of businesses and sectors over the years. These experiences have reinforced a simple conviction that the building of enduring institutions like the RSS and the building of a nation are often more closely intertwined than we realize.
The future is built on the foundation of strong industries. Every new construction in India moves the nation forward. Among the many sectors I have had the opportunity to work in, two in particular—cement and financial services—offer a useful lens through which one could illustrate this idea. They remind us that nations are built through the patient creation of capabilities—physical, financial, and digital—and they show how business, when pursued with purpose and a long-term perspective, can become a powerful force for good. Let me start with cement. You might be surprised to know that after water, cement is the most consumed substance in the world. That statistic itself tells us how vital cement is: every road connecting society, every house sheltering a family, every school shaping the future, and every factory providing employment. The strength of cement is embedded in the foundation of all of these.
India today is the world's second-largest producer of cement, with an annual production of nearly 500 million tons. The past decade has been particularly transformative. India's highway network has expanded by nearly 60%, our metro rail network has grown by 350%, and daily road construction has tripled to around 35 kilometers a day. When a country builds at this scale, cement ceases to be merely a material; it is regarded as a national development asset. I have had the privilege of witnessing transformation through our own cement company, UltraTech Cement. Over the past decade, UltraTech Cement's capacity has grown from 60 million tons to 200 million tons today. And it is a matter of pride for every Indian that today UltraTech Cement has become the largest cement company in the world outside of China. UltraTech's capacity is more than double the cement capacity of the United States, and greater than the entire capacity of the European Union.
If cement builds the physical foundation of a nation, financial services help build its economic foundations. Whether it is someone's dream to start a business, the aspiration to build a home, or hope for a child's better future, it all depends on access to capital and financial security. How and to what extent you can access capital is extremely critical. Over the last decade, India has witnessed one of the most significant financial transformations anywhere in the world. Through a combination of visionary public policy, regulatory reforms, and digital public infrastructure, access to financial services has expanded at an unprecedented scale. Jan Dhan connected bank accounts, Aadhaar established identity, GST strengthened the system, and Direct Benefit Transfer delivered assistance directly to the people. Together, these initiatives have brought financial services to the doorstep of the common citizen.
And as formal credit penetration expanded and entrepreneurship flourished, our financial services business, Aditya Birla Capital, saw its lending capacity multiply significantly. The combined NBFC and housing finance loan book has grown from 25,000 crores a decade ago to over 2 lakh crores today, lending predominantly to MSMEs and retail individuals to help them start new enterprises. To me, however, the larger story is about the democratization of opportunity. And another sector that has helped democratize opportunity and access is connectivity. Finance builds opportunity, telecom builds inclusion, cement builds infrastructure, and together they demonstrate how businesses operating across various different sectors can contribute to nation-building. It is essential for us to consider the role industry can play in building a nation.
The vision of a developed India—Viksit Bharat—is grand, and large industries have an equally significant role to play in realizing it. Big businesses must continue to see MSMEs as complementary partners, and collectively we should aspire to create at least 100 national champions who are globally competitive, globally recognized, and who lead their respective sectors. And so my appeal to the young people of Bharat is simple: embrace entrepreneurship. This is our Bharat. Build in India, build for India, and build for the world. Stay in India and build for the entire world. India possesses one of the world's oldest entrepreneurial traditions, one of its youngest populations, and one of its most dynamic markets. The opportunities before this generation are unprecedented. The opportunities before this generation have never existed before. This era is India's era.
There has never been a better time to be a young Indian in India, and there has certainly never been a better time to build in India. There was never a better time than today to be young and in India, and to build something substantial in India—to create your own enterprise or MSME. Because every business that creates jobs, develops technologies, strengthens supply chains, or serves society contributes to something much larger than itself. Ultimately, business-building leads to nation-building. A futurist in America said that the entire world will experience as much progress in the next 10 years as it did in the last 100 years. Think about that: the world will witness as much progress in 10 years as occurred in 100 years.
The question before us is not whether the future will arrive—it already has. The question is whether we have the courage to build upon it, the imagination to shape it, and the determination to ensure that it serves the aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians. This is a massive opportunity for every Indian, a monumental moment that perhaps has never arrived before in our lifetimes. I believe we will do it. I believe India will take full advantage of this opportunity because India's greatest strength is its people. The people of India, every Indian, is India's greatest strength. And we must keep progressing and keep growing. We have to keep moving forward; we have to keep growing. There is a Sanskrit saying that is like a life mantra for me: 'Charaiveti, Charaiveti'—meaning keep moving forward, keep walking ahead.
So let our Amrit Kaal be defined by nation-building. Let us use this Amrit Kaal to advance India and build the nation, guided by values and measured by the opportunities we create for future generations. How many opportunities we can create for coming generations is a profoundly important task for us. After my visit today, I am even more convinced about the impact of the RSS towards the nation-building project. Today, I had the opportunity to spend the day here and see the diverse activities you are undertaking in the RSS. I felt very pleased, very proud, and I realized that the RSS's role in building and advancing India is truly vital. My congratulations to all of you for your selfless service to the nation. Thank you all very much and congratulations on the dedicated work you are doing for India. Thank you. Jai Hind.
