Sunil Bharti Mittal, born on 23 October 1957 originally from Ludhiana, is the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bharti Group. He is a pioneer, a dreamer and a doer. Sunil, former student of Harvard Business School, graduate of Punjab University. Son of Sat MP Paul Mittal, Sunil did not want to follow in his father's footsteps. Sunil started his business (manufacturing bicycle components in Ludhiana, India) in 1976 at the age of 18 with a borrowed capital of Rs 20,000. It later started operating from Delhi and Mumbai, India, mainly importing and distributing products. Its imports mainly included portable generators from Japan. In 1982, when the government banned the import of portable generators, it introduced push-button telephones to India and by the early 1990s it was manufacturing fax machines, cordless phones and telecommunications equipment. After obtaining the license for mobile services, Bharti Cellular Limited (BCL) was incorporated in 1995 to offer cellular services under the name AirTel, which is now India's largest telecom operator. In November 2006, it entered into a joint venture agreement with Wal-Mart, the US retail giant, to set up a series of retail stores across India. Sunil Mittal, father of twins and a daughter, runs his business with his two brothers Rakesh and Rajan. Regarding his early years of working life he says that the period from 1976 to 1985 was a time of great struggle, a period of great pain but also a period of great learning and it was not so easy to establish oneself in the market because it was not as open as today , but when they entered the telecommunications industry in 1985-86 and made telephone instruments, there was clearly a vision and foresight that this industry was going to be successful. Despite his deep involvement in the work, the Mittal man is calm, rarely agitated and very down to earth. He says he achieves a sense of detachment and peace with regular yoga practice. Sunil Mittal says that to be successful one must have a positive frame of mind through which to exploit extremely bad situations. For his business model he admires the uncompromising image of Tatas and the entrepreneurial blend of Ambanis. He was very conscious of his social obligations and created the Bharti Foundation. In Madhya Pradesh, India, his Bharti AirTel has funded over 50 schools. He also donated Rs 200 million to IIT Delhi for the construction of a Bharti School of Technology and Management.