K.K. Birla, the patriarch of a renowned Indian industrial empire, died Saturday at his home in Calcutta. He was 89.

The cause was age-related ailments and pneumonia, his family said. His close associates said he was grief-stricken by the death on July 29 of his wife of 67 years, Manorama Devi.

Birla built on the company started by his father to establish one of India’s biggest business conglomerates, with interests in industries like sugar, fertilizers, chemicals, heavy engineering, textile, shipping and media, among many others.

He was the chairman of one of India’s biggest national daily newspapers, The Hindustan Times, which became a successful media company under his stewardship.

As a leading figure in both the humanities and technology in India, he established the K.K. Birla Foundation, which gives awards in many fields and focuses not on the English-speaking middle class of urban India, but on the achievements of its rural population.

Birla was also a prominent three-term member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament and was close to Indian political leaders like Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh. Loyal to the Congress Party, he had friends across the political spectrum.