sunil bharti mittal

Sunil Bharti Mittal, born October 23, 1957 is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bharti group. The USD 5 billion turnover company runs Indias largest GSM based mobile phone service. The son of a politician, Sunil Mittal is from the town of Ludhiana in Punjab. He has built the Bharti group, along with two siblings, into Indias largest mobile phone operator in just ten years. He has been Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Group since October 2001.

Residing in Delhi, he is married, with three children. A first generation entrepreneur, he started his first business in 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 borrowed from his father. His first business was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers. In 1980 he sold his bicycle parts and yarn factories and moved to Mumbai. The importing of telecom equipment was banned by the Indian Government as ITI (Indian Telecom Industry) monopoly practices & sole OEM for Department of Telecommunication. He established the first company to manufacture push button telephones in India. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area and launched services in the city of Delhi and the National Capital Region in the year 1995.

Sunil has received several awards including: Transforming India Leader, NDTV Business Leader Awards 2008. GSMA Chairmans Award 2008 Padma Bhushan in 2007, from the President of India Asia Businessman of the Year, Fortune Magazine 2006 Telecom Person of the Year, Voice & Data, 2006 CEO of the year 2005, at the Frost and Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT awards 2006 Best Asian Telecom CEO, Telecom Asia Awards 2005 Best CEO, India, Institutional Investor, 2005 Business Leader Of The Year, Economic Times, 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2004, Ernst & Young.

Sunil is the son of former MP (Member if parliament), Sat Paul and Lalita. He has two brothers, Rakesh and Rajan who helped him built Bharti Group into Indias largest mobile phone operator in just ten years. His father, Sat Paul Mittal, former MP was always in the public eye.

Sunil Mittal belongs to an Indian ethnic Baniya family. His father was a former MP (Member of Parliament) and had always been a public figure. Though the financial state of the Mittal family was good enough, Sunil did not want to follow his fathers footsteps and started a business at a very early age.Initially he joined the Wyanberg Allen School in Mussoorie but later he attended Scindhia School at Gwalior. In 1976, Sunil graduated with a Bachelors of Arts and Science, from the Punjab University, Chandigarh.From a very early age Sunil started a business with his two brothers and a friend in 1976, though there was not much struggle in his early life, he chose to work hard and establish his own empire.His father passed away in 1992 due to cardiac arrest, but this did not stop this ambitious telecommunication mogul from pursuing his ambitions.

Mittal started his first business in 1976, which was to make crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers with a capital investment of 20000, borrowed from his father, when he was only 18 years of age.By 1979, Mittal moved to Mumbai, since he thought Ludhiana was not the place for the fulfillment of his ambitions.Later, in the early 1980s he bought licenses of importing from the exporting companies in Punjab and imported thousand of portable electric power generators from Japan.But suddenly the Indian Government banned the import of generators and all but two licenses were canceled.In 1984, Mittal came up with an idea and started assembling push button phones in India, which were earlier imported by a Taiwan Company, Kingtel, and replaced the old, bulky rotator phones in the country.

It was then, that Bharti Telecommunication Limited was incorporated and tied up in a technical bond with the Siemens AG of Germany for the manufacture of these push button phones. Towards the beginning of the 1990s, Mittal had started making fax machines, cordless phones and other such telecommunication gears. His first series of push button phones was named Mitbro.In 1992, came the lucky break, when the government, for the very first time, began issuing licenses for the mobile phone service. He bid for one license out of the four to be issued and was successful, since one condition was that the bidder should have some experience as a telecommunication operator.Mittal was the very first Indian entrepreneur who saw the mobile telecommunication business as a major growth area. Once his ideas and plan of actions were approved by the government in 1994, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was founded in 1995 and the brand Airtel was launched.The BCL played a major role in bringing a major downfall in the STD and Local rates under a brand name Indiaone. To create Bharti Comtel, Mittal even attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta. A joint venture deal with the Wal mart, the US retail giant was struck by Mittal in November 2006, to start a chain of retail stores across India.

Sunil is married to Nyna and has three children, one daughter, Eisha and twin sons, Kavin and Sharvin.

Sunil Mittal was awarded the Padma Bhushan, which is Indias third highest civilian honor. Sunil is also a member of the Prime Ministers Council on Trade and Industry.The Keil Institute, Germany awarded him the Global Economy award in 2009. Sunil has a long list of awards and recognitions. Several major media houses, such as, The Times of India, NDTV and Business times have honored him with the title of Businessman of the year. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has him on its Telecommunication board. Sunil is associated with several world class academic institutes such as Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Indian school of Business, London Business School and the Harvard Business School.

Mittal began his career from a very early age of 18 and since then he has been on an entrepreneurial venture. Today he leads the top telecommunication company in India with over 30000 employees. Sunils Bharti Airtel, has a market capitalization of over $30 billion. His company is among the leading global telecommunication service providers in Asia and Africa, attracting over 218 million costumers as per March 2011 report.

Sunil Mittal is a philanthropist, who ha been working towards the education sector in India through the Bharti Foundation, which has established over 2000 schools. Sunil is superstitious about numerological issues. He believes that the number 23 is lucky for him and plans most of his important actions for 23rd. He even stops eating meat before any big venture. He is amongst the worlds top 25 philanthropists. Sunil advices young entrepreneurs to follow their dream confidently and strive hard to fulfill them.

Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group, Indias largest GSM based mobile phone service provider, IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award from World HRD Congress.Sunil Mittal can be called as originator of cellular phone revolution in India. He is the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group and runs Indias largest GSM based mobile phone service.Sunil Bharti Mittals father was an M.P. Sunil did not followed his fathers footsteps. After graduating from Punjab University in 1970s, he set up a small bicycle business in Ludhiana in partnership with his friend. By 1979, Sunil Mittal realized that his ambitions could not be fulfilled in Ludhiana, so he moved out to Mumbai from Ludhiana.He spent a few years in Mumbai and in 1982, Sunil Mittal started a full fledged business selling portable generators imported from Japan. This gave him a chance to acquaint himself with the nitty grittys of marketing and advertising. His business was running smoothly but later on the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally.

In 1986, Sunil Bharti Mittal incorporated Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones. Gradually he expanded his business and by early 1990s, Sunil Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.In 1992, when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time, Sunil Mittal clinched Delhi cellular license in collaboration with French telecom group Vivendi. In 1995, Sunil Mittal founded Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) to offer cellular services under the brand name AirTel. Soon, Bharti became the first telecom company to cross the 2 million mobile subscriber mark. Bharti Cellular Limited also rolled out Indias first private national as well as international long distance service under the brand name IndiaOne. In 2001, BCL entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom International for a $650 million submarine cable project, Indias first ever undersea cable link connecting Chennai in India and Singapore.Today, Sunil Mittal runs a successful empire with a market capitalization of approximately $ 2 billion and employing over 5,000 people. He has been honored with several awards. Sunil Bharti Mittal was chosen as one of the top entrepreneurs in the world for the year 2000 and amongst Stars Of Asia, by Business Week. He also received IT Man of the Year Award 2002 from Dataquest and CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award (World HRD Congress).

Sunil Mittal was born in Punjabi Aggarwal Family. His father, Sat Paul Mittal, had been the Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (Indian National Congress) from Punjab, he was elected from Punjab for two terms (1976 & 1982) and nominated to the Rajya Sabha once (1988). He first joined the Wynberg Allen School in Mussoorie,but later attended Scindia School at Gwalior and he graduated in 1976 from Panjab University, Chandigarh, with a Bachelor of Arts and Science for which he studied in Arya College, Ludhiana.His father died of cardiac arrest in 1992.