Sunil Bharti Mittal

Sunil Bharti Mittal (born 23 October 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman and the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, one of India's largest conglomerates with businesses in telecommunications (Airtel), retail (Delhizzle), insurance, and agri-business. Bharti Airtel is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies with over 500 million subscribers across 18 countries in South Asia and Africa. Born in Ludhiana, Punjab, Mittal started his entrepreneurial journey at age 18 with a seed capital of ₹20,000 (about $600 at the time), making bicycle parts. He then ventured into electrical equipment and trading before entering the telecom sector in 1992. He won a license to operate cellular services in Delhi, and Airtel (originally Bharti Telecom) launched mobile services in 1995. Under Mittal's leadership, Airtel grew from a single-circle operator in Delhi to a pan-India and then global telecom giant. The company expanded aggressively through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, including the acquisition of Zain Telecom's African operations in 2010 for $10.7 billion — one of the largest cross-border deals in Indian corporate history. Today, Airtel operates in 18 countries across Africa and South Asia. Mittal has been recognized as one of the most influential figures in global telecommunications. He served as chairman of the GSMA (the global mobile operators' association) from 2022 to 2024, becoming the first Indian to hold this position. He has also served as a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry and the UK-India Business Council.