Tata deal shows 'India has arrived': Sunil Mittal

Tata Motors' acquisition of the prestigious Jaguar and Land Rover car brands shows that "India has arrived" on the world scene - something American politicians now need to wake up to, Indian industrialist Sunil Bharti Mittal said Wednesday.
He spoke after meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He was leading a delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
"India has arrived and is being accepted by all. The welcome we are seeing in the United Kingdom is just fantastic. We are very, very proud of the house of Tatas," Mittal, president of the CII, told IANS.

"Globalisation is a two-say street. Now, it is time for American politicians to realise that globalisation benefits everybody, as the UK has understood," said Mittal, who is CEO of Bharti Enterprises.
Mittal said he was "delighted" with the news about the deal between Tata Motors and sellers Ford.
"Jaguar and Land Rover are iconic brands known to the entire world. For Tata to pick them up is fantastic," he added.
Mittal also said he had a "very good meeting" with Prime Minister Brown as a follow-up to the British leader's visit to India in January.
Brown and the 15-member delegation discussed key issues in areas of skills building, climate change and global trade talks.
"Gordon Brown wants India to fully participate in the Doha Round of Talks at the World Trade Organization. He wants us to move ahead on the NAMA discussions (on manufacturing tariffs)," Mittal said.
"He said the world will move on agriculture, so that's a message we will be carrying to (Commerce Minister) Kamal Nath."
The meeting was the third between CII members and the British prime minister in the last 18 months.
Britain is India's fourth largest trading partner globally and the second largest in Europe, after Germany.
The delegation included CII chief mentor Tarun Das, Hindustan Motors chairman C.K. Birla, and Dabur India chairman Anand Burman.
Indo-Asian News Service

Sunil Bharti Mittal has won GSM Association Chairman's Award 2008

Chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd., Sunil Bharti Mittal has been awarded the GSM Association Chairman's Award 2008 at the recently concluded GSMA Meet in Barcelona, Spain. This Award, which is the highest honour in the global telecom sector, has been conferred on Mr. Mittal for his tremendous contribution to the development of India’s telecom sector. It reflects Mr. Mittal’s remarkable dedication, personal passion and leadership toward the goal of connecting people via communication across the broad spectrum of Indian society. In doing so, he has led a business revolution which has seen Bharti Airtel innovate in unique ways and reinvent its business model in order to sustainably serve and connect the lowest income strata of Indian society.

Congratulating Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal on receiving this award, GSM Association Chairman Craig Ehrlich said “Mr. Mittal has built an incredibly successful business from scratch, one which has had a truly transformational impact on our industry, on the customers he serves and on India’s economy. His brave and ambitious strategies will continue to resonate across the country, our industry and the business community globally, becoming a benchmark for emerging markets worldwide. We congratulate Mr. Mittal, on what has been an immense personal contribution to the vitality of the mobile world."

The GSMA Chairman’s Award was first established in 1995 and recognizes people or organisations that have made a real difference to the mobile industry - pushed the industry into a whole new dimension. Some of the previous awardees include Jorma Ollila, former CEO and now chairman of Nokia; Sir Christopher Gent, former CEO of Vodafone, and Zhang Li Gui, former president of China Mobile.