-Sunil Bharti Mittal (born October 23, 1957) is an Indian businessman. He is the chairman and managing director of the Bharti group. The US$5 billion turnover company runs India’s largest GSM-based mobile phone service. He is the son of the late Sat Paul (former MP) and Lalita. 

Education                                                                                                                                                                             

He graduated in 1979 from Punjab University with a Bachelor of Arts and Science.

Bharti Group

The son of a politician Bharti Mittal, Sunil Mittal is from the town of Ludhiana in Punjab. He has built the Bharti group, along with two siblings and became India’s largest mobile phone operator in just ten years. The UK based telecommunication giant, Vodafone and Singapore’s SingTel both own stakes in the recently renamed flagship company Bharti Airtel. The group also has partnerships with Axa for insurance and with the Rothschild family.

Sunil Bharti Mittal (left) with James J. Schiro and Angela MerkelAirtel now serves over 110 Million Indian customers — becoming the largest telecom operator in India.

Entrepreneurial Ventures

Residing in Delhi, he is married and has three children. A first generation entrepreneur, he started his first business in April 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 (U$500) 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.

In 1981, he purchased importing licences from exporting companies in Punjab. He then imported thousands of Suzuki Motors’s portable electric-power generators from Japan. The importing of generators was suddenly banned by the then Indian Government and just 2 licences to manufacture generators in India were issued to 2 companies.

1984, he started assembling push-button phones in India. In 1992, he successfully bid for 1 of the 4 mobile phone network licences auctioned in India. He was one of the first Indian entrepreneurs to identify the mobile telecom business as a major growth area. His plans were finally approved by the Government in 1994 and launched services in Delhi in 1995.

Philanthropy

He is opening a Football academy in Haryana or Goa to help India send a team to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Mittal has also been working towards educating India through the Bharti Foundation

Tie-Up with Wal-Mart

In November 2006, he struck a joint venture deal with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across India.

In July 2006, he attracted many key executives from Reliance ADAG, NIS Sparta and created Bharti Comtel