Asian Education Group (AEG)’s constituent group college, Asian School of Business (ASB) – which is ranked as one of the top private BBA/BCA colleges in Delhi NCR – jointly organized a Live WEBINAR session on the topic “LET THERE BE LOVE” for all BBA/BCA students & aspirants with the “Youth Icon”, social entrepreneur, acclaimed musician, mental health advocate, and a “Forbes Woman to Watch” – Ms. Ananya Birla – on Saturday 22nd August 2020 at 10:00 am as part of its “Leadership & Entrepreneurial Aspiration Development (LEAD) Program”. As it evolved, the webinar turned out a youthfully vibrant session for all participants.
Ms. Ananya Birla (born 17 July 1994) is an Indian singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and mental health advocate. In 2016, Ms. Ananya signed with Universal Music India. Her first five songs hit the 150 million mark on streaming platforms, with singles “Meant To Be”, “Livin the Life”, “Hold On”, “Circles” and “Better” achieving platinum status. Ms. Ananya is the first Indian artist with an English language single to go platinum in India. She released her debut EP Fingerprint in May 2019, via UMG and Island Records UK. It included “Blackout” featuring Vector and Wurld, which was one of the first collaborations between major artists from India and Nigeria.
Ms. Ananya is the founder of Svatantra Microfin, a company that provides microfinance to women in rural India. She is also the founder of CuroCarte and cofounder of Mpower. Ms. Ananya has received awards for her work and entrepreneurship, including the ET Panache Trendsetters of 2016 award for Young Business Person and was listed as one of GQs Most Influential Indians of 2018. She is also the daughter of Kumar Mangalam Birla, an Indian industrialist and the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.
A seed initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – the webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the famous young guest.
The youthfully vibrant session commenced with a welcome note, followed by a brief introduction of the famous young by Ms. Garima on behalf of the AEG family. Thereafter, Ms. Ananya Birla took the virtual centre stage of the webinar session all the way from her apartment at Los Angeles, USA.
Thanking AEG for the opportunity to talk to the students, Ms. Ananya Birla opened the session by straightaway sharing the magic mantra of her life and achievements so far – viz., “You just can’t give up and not take NO as an answer!”
Talking in great detail about her belief, Ms. Ananya Birla stated how, when the pandemic hit the USA, she found herself confined to her home apartment in Los Angeles but set-up a studio within the home environment to keep up with her work. She said that likewise, her journey so far in life has been “a journey of not giving up … no matter what!” Her word of advice to the students was, “Just don’t give up … life will keep moving!”
Next, Ms. Ananya Birla retraced her life and described how at the age of 17, she started with her first venture ‘Svatantra Microfin Private Limited’ towards providing small loans to women entrepreneurs based in rural India that eventually won the Gold Award for Best Start-Up (Skoch Financial Inclusion and Deepening Awards, 2014), Spirituality @ Work: Sach Bharat Samman (Sach Bharat Confluence 2015) and has maintained a quality loan portfolio, offering one of the lowest interest rates in the country. She specially talked about the several challenges that came her way and how she overcame them with her stand-out belief that “You just can’t give up!”
Then, in the year 2016, Ms. Ananya Birla became the founder and CEO of CuroCarte, an inventory-based global luxury e-Commerce platform. The same year, Forbes named her one of Asia’s Women to Watch.
Talking straight from her heart, Ms. Ananya confessed that she was truly overwhelmed by success of ‘Svatantra’, especially with the fact that she was able to make a difference in the life and existence of the rural women in India. And, at this point, she did not know what to do next but had a strong conviction that “life is all about moving on!” According to her, it is here that she decided to follow her passion for music wholeheartedly and professionally … and became what she is today.
Ms. Ananya Birla then opened the session for questions from the participants. A series of questions were put up by the students, most of which related to her multiple achievements as entrepreneur, singer, songwriter and philanthropist. And, the young speaker and achiever provided the most convincing answers to each of these questions.
Answering a question “What inspires you to write such beautiful song pieces?”, the young rock star said that they were “the writings from her heart.” To a question on what singing represented, she said that it represented the “Peace from the mind!”
Then, there was a question on her views on “Entrepreneurship”. Answering this question, Ms. Ananya Birla said that “Conceptually, start-ups should start from a scratch and it should aim to make a difference in the life of people.” Here, she emphasized upon the critical role of “Teamwork” in any such success and acknowledged that she was “lucky to find right people around her in all her entrepreneurial successes.”
Answering a particular question in context to Asian School of Business’ in-house Entrepreneurship Development & Incubation Centre (EDIC) on “the important skills required for becoming a successful entrepreneur”, Ms. Ananya Birla said, “Be ready to make your hands dirty and be ready for doing everything.” She further opined, “Many will discourage you, but never give up. Believe in yourself and tell yourself that you can’t give up. Also, be ready to learn from mistakes.”
Concluding her most interesting interactive session, Ms. Ananya Birla put forth a word of career advice for students – “Whatever you take up, ensure that you love doing it and don’t take it as per advice by others. Just be you!”
Thenceforth, the session concluded with the customary exchange of pleasantries.
