Sunil Mittal on economic reforms
From Bharti Ent. CEO Sunil Mittal: TRAI Needs To Look At Certain Issues Sensitively · · ET Now
“I think it's the government which is determined to move forward the econom agenda and you will see uh that this government in and outside the parliament will keep pushing for those reforms and I have said this many times before there are very few pieces left in the serious sense of reforms most of the things are behind us now the insurance FDI has moved defense FDI has moved they're very small things Telecom one of the few countries in the world which has got 100% FDI the entire infrastructure space is 100% as far as FDI is concerned we are expecting further notificational simplification of FDI in terms of composite caps easy understanding of FDI Norms I think the government is moving and politics Will Keep On happening elections will keep on happening but here is a government uh led by a leader who is uh conscious of what uh business and industry can do for the country so I think we as a nation should remain hopeful”
On , Sunil Mittal, Chairman at Bharti Airtel, spoke about economic reforms during Bharti Ent. CEO Sunil Mittal: TRAI Needs To Look At Certain Issues Sensitively on ET Now.
About Sunil Mittal
Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, participated in a conference call following the company's Q4 FY26 results, where he discussed plans to increase ownership in Airtel Africa over the next several years, describing a $3 billion share-exchange transaction as akin to acquiring a business the company knows deeply. He stated that the company's capital allocation priorities are investing in the core business, deleveraging, adjacencies such as data centers and financial services, and progressively increasing dividends. Mittal noted that the company's planned investment of 20,000 crore rupees in financial services over five years would likely be "significantly less" than that amount, and that Airtel is looking for a "very small controlled financial services business." Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026, Mittal urged Indian industry to increase domestic investment and reduce dependence on imports, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for economic self-reliance. He said India needs to "get away from this obsession of import of gold," lower energy costs, and move faster toward renewable energy, adding that "this is the moment to invest double down in our own country." In a separate fireside chat, Mittal called on the GSMA to be more aggressive in advocating for market consolidation, citing India and China as examples where consolidation has led to lower tariffs and better network quality. He also described Airtel as a $130 billion company with 600 million customers across 17 countries, and highlighted the company's use of AI to block 71 billion spam calls and nearly a million fraudulent links.