Sunil Bharti Mittal Biography

About Sunil Bharti Mittal

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

Sunil Bharti Mittal's Personal Background

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

Career of Sunil Bharti Mittal

• 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.

Slowly and gradually Bharti Cellular Limited became the leading telecommunication company in India and 'Airtel' a brand on every Indian's mind.

Ideologies of Bharti Enterprises

• Vision
  Always empowering and backing our people.
  Being loved and admired by our customers and respected by our partners.
  Transforming millions of lives and making a positive impact on society.
  Being brave and unbounded in realizing our dreams.
• Empowerment
  We respect the opinions and decisions of others. We encourage and back people to do their best.
• Entrepreneurship
  We always strive to change the status quo. We innovate with new ideas and energize with a strong passion and entrepreneurial spirit.
• Transparency
  We believe we must work with honesty, trust and the innate desire to do good.
• Impact
  We are driven by the desire to create a meaningful difference in society.
• Flexibility
  We are ever willing to learn and adapt to the environment, our partners and the customers’ evolving needs.

Awards and Achievments of Sunil Bharti Mittal

Sunil Mittal was awarded the Padma Bhushan, which is India's third highest civilian honor. Sunil is also a member of the Prime Minister's 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.

Social work done by Sunil Bharti Mittal

Sunil Mittal is a philanthropist, who has 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 world's top 25 philanthropists. Sunil advices young entrepreneurs to follow their dream confidently and strive hard to fulfill them.

Last Updated on June 01, 2015