Rags to Riches: Sunil Bharti Mittal Connecting India

The story of Sunil Bharti Mittal – the Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of Bharti Group, India's largest GSM-based mobile service provider, is arguably the most inspiring one in the history of entrepreneurship in India.

Sunil Mittal, born in Ludhiana, Punjab, was the second son of politician Satpaul Mittal. However, unlike his father, Sunil Mittal had no intention of venturing into the world of politics. As a teenager, Mittal was always inclined towards business. He stepped into the business world at the age of 18 by borrowing Rs 20,000 from his father to set up a small bicycle business back in 1979. Sensing that the business would remain small, Mittal moved out of Ludhiana to Mumbai.

It was during his Mumbai days when Sunil Mittal had to overcome extraordinary hardships. He would often work 16-18 hours a day, travel in trucks to deliver consignments as he could not afford trains or flights, would sit on low stools for hours inside small cubicles. These experiences led Sunil to discover the inner salesman within him.

"I did pick up very early signs that I had a way to charm the lenders or partners to come and join hands; and whether it was a bank manager or a partner from abroad, I could generally seek a lot of credit from them". "If they had made me a dealer, then I would have got rich and comfortable. Looking back, I think it was God's design that I should not get too comfortable. He had other plans for me," Mittal would later reveal in an interview back in 2005.

 By 1982, Sunil Mittal had a full-fledged business up and running selling portable generators imported from Japan. The new venture gave him an immense exposure to activities such as marketing and advertising.  The business was operating smoothly until the government banned the import of generators, giving two Indian companies license to manufacture generators locally.

The ban never de-motivated Sunil Mittal, as he got interested in push-button phones while on a trip to Taiwan. In 1982, he introduced push-button phones in India, replacing the old, bulky rotary phones. These events led to the incorporation of Bharti Telecom Limited that manufactured push-button phones in India. By the early 1990's Mittal was manufacturing fax machines, cordless phones, and other telecom gear.

The big break came in his entrepreneurial journey in 1992 when the Indian government was awarding licenses for mobile phone services for the first time. In 1995, Sunil secured the rights that led to the incorporation of Bharti Cellular Ltd under the brand name Airtel. The rest is history, as, within a few years, Airtel became the first telecom service provider to reach 2 million subscribers. Bharti Airtel was also instrumental in bringing down the STD/ISD cellular rates in India by rolling the nation's first private national, as well as, international long-distance service.

It was Sunil Mittal who broke up the 100-year monopoly of state-run companies to operate telecom services in India. At present, Bharti Airtel has a global reach operating in 16 countries across Asia and Africa. As of 2019, Bharti Airtel had a subscriber base of over 418 million. With a net worth of $10.8 billion, Sunil Bharti Mittal is ranked 157 in the Forbes list. Beyond the Telecommunication sector, Bharti Enterprise has ventured into several other ecosystems that include malls, real estate, insurance, food, agriculture, and hospitality over the last decade and a half.

Mittal is committed to the transformation of telecom into a lifestyle business, ranging from calls to games, from movies to music, making a big play for the Indian mind-share with Bharti Airtel Triple Play, Telephone, Broadband, TV, and many more.

From working 16 hours a day at the tender age of 18 to becoming the 'ring king' of the Indian telecom industry – Sunil Mittal's entrepreneurial journey is truly a story of turning rags to riches.

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