Sunil Mittal the 8th Richest Man of India

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Sunil Mittal is the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group(Airtel), India’s largest GSM-based mobile phone service provider. The man can be called as originator of cellular phone revolution in India. He is the 8th richest man of India with US$8.2 billion according to Forbes magazine.

Sunil Mittal was born born on October 23, 1957. Being a son of a minister, he didn’t follow his father’s footsteps. After graduating from Punjab University, the telecom entrepreneur joined Harvard Business School. He had a keen interest in business since teenage, which he gave shape in form of a small bicycle business with his friend. An exceptionally ambitious man later moved out of Ludhiana and came to Mumbai to fulfill his dream.

In Mumbai, Mittal started a full-fledged business, selling portable generators imported from Japan and thus got involved in activities like marketing and advertising. His business was running smoothly until government banned import of generators as two local companies were given licenses to manufacture.

Mittal then got interested in push button phones while on a trip to Taiwan, and in 1982. He introduced the phones to India, replacing the old fashioned, bulky rotary phones that were in use in the country then.

In 1986, Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated and entered into a technical tie up with Siemens AG of Germany for manufacture of electronic push button phones. By the early 1990s, Mittal was making fax machines, cordless phones and other telecom gear.

In 1992, 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.

Today, Sunil Mittal is running a successful empire of india’s largest telecom network with capitalization of around $2 billion and employing over 5,000 people. He has received many awards and recognitions including ‘ IT Man of the Year Award 2002′ from Dataquest and ‘CEO Of the Year, 2002 Award’ (World HRD Congress).