Sunil Mittal gets call from Sarkozy to participate at e-G8

In a rare honour, Bharti Group chief Sunil Mittal has been invited to the first-ever meet on the internet to be held under the purview of Group of Eight (G-8) industrialised nations later this month in France.

Mittal has received the invitation for the meet from French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current head of the G-8 grouping.

“In my current capacity as President of the G-8, I would like to place the issue of the internet on the agenda of the summit of Heads of State and Government that will be held in Deauville on 26-27 May, 2011.”

“Given the major role you and the company you lead (Bharti group) play in the field of information technology, I would be honoured if you could attend this unprecedented conference,” Sarkozy said in a letter to Mittal.

Mittal is the founder chairman and group CEO of the over $13-billion Bharti Enterprises, one of the country’s leading business groups with interests in telecom, retail, financial services, realty and agri-products.

The Bharti group offers a variety of telecom services — mobile, basic, internet, long distance — and has risen to the level of a global player with acquisition of Zain Telecom’s operations in Africa last year, making it the world’s fifth largest telecom company.

The core G-8 participants include France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada, United States and Britain.

Traditionally, the host country of the G-8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multinational civil servants in the weeks before the summit, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign.

Participants in the e-G8 Forum will be able to exchange ideas about cutting-edge products and servikces. They will also be able to discuss the challenges and opportunities which they believe are relevant to the future of the internet, offering their opinions on a wide range of issues, including, for example, human rights, intellectual property and technological investment. Bharti has joint ventures with several global leaders like Singtel, Walmart, AXA and Del Monte.

Earlier, Mittal was recognised with the Padma Bhushan, one of the country’s highest civilian awards. He had also been conferred the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for 2009.

He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry and serves on its sub-committee on promoting financial inclusion. He served as the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry, the premier industry body in India during (2007-08).

Bharti Airtel, the flagship group company, has operations across 19 countries in Asia and Africa with a subscriber base of over 180 million.