The Airtel Story: How Opportunity came Calling for the now World’s 3rd Largest Telecom Firm

The success of Bharti Airtel is seldom overshadowed by the exemplary success of its founder. His is an ideal story of turning an obstacle into an opportunity. Already a business man at 18years of age, Sunil Bharti Mittal started with a small bicycle business in the bi-lanes of Ludhiana in April 1976 with a capital investment of Rs 20,000 borrowed from his father. By 1982, he had moved on to a full-fledged business in Mumbai, selling portable generators imported from Japan until the government banned the import of generators as two Indian companies were awarded licenses to manufacture generators locally. He was out of business overnight. And that was the beginning of India’s ‘Telecom Czar’ and India's largest telecom firm.

Here’s the story of the company Sunil Bharti Mittal built