Sunil Bharti Mittal is an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist who is the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, a multi-billion dollar Indian business conglomerate that has its presence in industries such as telecom, insurance, real estate, education, and hospitality. The conglomerate’s flagship company Bharti Airtel is one of the world’s largest telecom organizations and operates in numerous countries across Asia and Africa with a subscriber base of more than 400 million. Sunil has served as a member of the ‘Board of Directors’ of organizations such as Qatar Foundation Endowment, SoftBank Corp., Unilever PLC, Standard Chartered Bank PLC, and Hero Honda Motors. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honor in 2007.
Sun Sign
Scorpio
Residence
New Delhi, India
Girlfriend / Spouse
Sunil has dated –
- Nyna Mittal – Sunil and Nyna have 3 children together – a daughter named Eiesha Mittal, and twin sons named Kavin Bharti Mittal (b. August 31, 1987) (Entrepreneur, Founder, and CEO of Hike Messenger) and Shravin Mittal (b. August 31, 1987) (Business Executive).
Distinctive Features
- Short-cropped hair
- Affable smile
- Clean-shaven look
- Has a mole near his right eyebrow
Sunil Bharti Mittal Favorite Things
- Adventure Sport – Sky Gliding
- Sports – Golf, Tennis
- Restaurant – La Piazza, Hyatt Regency, New Delhi
- Music Genre – Indian Classical, Ghazals
- Hobbies/Interests – Aviation, Listening to music, Playing Musical Instruments
- Musical Instrument – Tanpura
Source – ,
Sunil Bharti Mittal Facts
- He started his first business, that of making crankshafts for bicycle manufacturers at the age of 18 with an investment of INR 20k which he had borrowed from his father.
- In 1980, he and his brothers sold off the bicycle parts business and moved to Mumbai. They then launched an import business named Bharti Overseas Trading Company and began to purchase thousands of portable electric-power generators from the Japanese company Suzuki Motors. However, the business had to be shut down after the Indian Government banned the import of generators out of the blue.
- In 1984, Sunil began the business of assembling push-button phones to replace the bulky rotary-dial phones that were in common use in India at that time. A company named Bharti Telecom Limited (BTL) was incorporated for the purpose and by 1990 the company was also manufacturing fax machines and cordless phones under the brand name Beetel.
- Sunil’s company bid for one of the 4 mobile phone network licenses that were auctioned in 1992 and the Government of India approved his proposal in 1994. The service was launched in Delhi in 1995 via a new organization called Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) under the brand name AirTel. Within a few years, the company crossed the 2-million mobile subscriber mark.
- He was named ‘Business Leader of the Year’ by Economic Times in 2005 and ‘Asia Businessman of the Year’ by Fortune Magazine in 2006.
- In June 2010, Sunil managed to acquire the African business of the Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications company Zain Telecom for USD 10.7 billion which was then the largest-ever overseas acquisition by an Indian telecom company.
- In 2015, he announced that he would be joining the board of the space internet company called OneWeb. He was one among a bevy of investors that pitched in with capital amounting to USD 500 million in an investment round that included global giants like Coca-Cola, Virgin, and Qualcomm.
- In June 2016, Sunil was elected as the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.
- Sunil was instrumental in the launch of the Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises. The foundation, through its flagship program called the Satya Bharti School Program, has run more than 250 schools in 6 Indian states providing free education to children in rural areas.
Featured Image by World economic forum / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
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Facts of Sunil Bharti Mittal
- Gender Male
- full nameSunil Bharti Mittal
- middle nameBharti
- nicknamesSunil
- birthplaceLudhiana, Punjab, India
- Date of Birth October 23, 1957
- Age 66 years 10 months
- Horoscope Scorpio
- Lucky Number 10
- Lucky Stone Garnet
- Lucky Color Purple
- Best Match for Marriage Capricorn, Cancer, Pisces
- nationalityIndian
- religionHinduism
- net worth$8.9 billion
- professionEntrepreneur, Philanthropist
- weight75 kg or 165.5 lbs
- height5 ft 8 in or 173 cm
- hair colorSalt and Pepper
- eye colorDark Brown
- body type / buildAverage
- collegeArya College
- motherLalita Mittal
- fatherSat Paul Mittal
- brothersRajan Mittal, Rakesh Bharti Mittal