Sunil Mittal gets GSM Asso Chairman's award

Bharti Enterprises Group Chairman and CEO Sunil B Mittal has won the GSM Association Chairman's Award 2008 for his contribution to the development of India’s telecom sector.

The award, considered the global telecom industry’s highest honour, coincides with Bharti Airtel crossing the 60-million subscriber mark.

"It is a tribute to India’s telecom growth story, Bharti's vision and the emergence of Indian telcos on the global stage,” Mittal said in a statement. Bharti is now among the world’s top 10 mobile phone operators.

The award was conferred at a meeting of the GSM Association, the main global grouping of mobile phone companies operating on a GSM network, in Barcelona, Spain.

Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the Association, said: “Sunil 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.”

Past recipients of the award 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.