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

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) In a rare honour, Bharti Group
chief Sunil Mittal has been invited to the first-ever meet on
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, who is 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 over USD
13 billion Bharti Enterprises, one of India's leading business
groups with interests in telecom, retail, financial services,
realty and agri-products.
Bharti group, offers a variety of telecom services --
mobile, basic, Internet, long distance -- has risen to 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 England.
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 services. They will also
be able to discuss the challenges and opportunities which they
believe relevant to 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, Wal-Mart, AXA and Del Monte.
Earlier, Mittal was recognised with the Padma Bhushan,
one of India’s highest civilian awards. He had also been
conferred the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for 2009.
He is a member of the Indian 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 (CII), 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.