TT Correspondent

Manmohan Singh’s decision in 1990s’to liberalise the Indian economy is a well known historic pact now. The then Finance Minister’s decision had its bearing on the telecom sector as well which till the time was restricted only for government owned organization.

There was one company which pounced on the opportunity of opening up of the telecom sector even as others including big corporate houses were unclear of the potential of telecom services in the new economic environment. Bharti Enterprises, owners of leading private telecom service provider brand name Airtel, have not looked behind since entering the telecom fray and the company’s growth stories continues to scale new heights regularly even with the sector increasingly getting competitive.

The Bharti Group stands an ideal example to underline the success story which unfolded by opening up of telecom sector to private participation. The Group which was into telecom phone equipment manufacturing, diversified into telecom services by setting up its first exchange in Bhopal, MP. But the company’s turning point came out to be its venturing into GSM-based mobile services.

As is the trend in India, Bharti’s success caught the attention of other corporate giants who realized the big opportunity that lay in store in the country’s telecom services sector. Subsequently in early 2000s’ when the telecom sector was in its second phase of growth leap, groups such as Tatas, Reliance, Hutch, BPL Mobile, Idea and regional players like Dishnet Wireless, Spice, HFCL, Shyam entered into the fray. Reliance’s entry was particularly considered to be a threat to Bharti’s leadership position. But to its credit, Bharti was successful to tide over the challenge and still continues to outgrow its competitors.

The group is promoted by Mittal brothers with Sunil Mittal as the Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises. Other persons at the top management include Rajan and Rakesh Mittal as Vice-Chairman and MD as well as Akhil Gupta as Deputy Group CEO and MD. Bharti Airtel’s investors in the past and present include names such as Vodafone, Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), LIC, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch.

The success of the Group reached such a scale that it was in a position to foray into other businesses as well like Insurance, DTH and Retail for which it has tied up with global giant Wal-Mart.

Bharti Airtel’s business division comprise of mobile services, enterprise services (corporates), enterprise services (carrier services) and telemedia services.

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