l Which would you say are the milestones that altered the course of the communications industry in India?
When the Government of India allowed the private sector into telecom equipment manufacturing in the mid 80s, it changed the course of the industry.

The second most important event was the granting of mobile telephone licenses in 1994. Everything had been closed till then and finally, the government felt that services is no longer a security issue. And as for Bharti, the turning point was the launch of Delhi in 1995. It was a Rs 300 crore project on the back of a Rs 25 crore balance sheet. Launching and managing that project was a big thing as was taking a leadership position against a big competitor.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & MD

l From push button and cordless phones to answering machines and fax machines, you have a string of firsts to your credit. Did being the first involve more risk?
We are not risk averse, but have managed risks as we have grown. When one is riding on billions of dollars, one cannot afford to be reckless. But we have taken calculated positions.

For instance, some time back, we decided to exit all areas of business in which we do not have complete control. Casio was one such venture and it was frustrating. So we decided to exit. For the same reasons, we bought out the Siemens venture. We had put in just Rs 2 crore in the Duraline venture and got back Rs 40 crore in two years. But we thought it made eminent sense to exit that business as we had nothing more to contribute to it.

In the Internet area, we had made significant investments in POPS. But Mantraonline scaled back from 150, 000 to 100,000 customers. Being an ISP does not make sense for us today, except in the case of Mantraonline selling corporate intranets using fiber.

We had plans of a software venture and had built a facility in Gurgaon. Seeing that it was not making headway, we moved our entire operations to Okhla in Delhi. The Gurgaon building is now being used by Agilient Technologies on a 10 year lease. This deal makes good economic sense. Similarly, when our plans of a call center did not take off, we gave out the building with a 1200 seating capacity to American Express. In fact, these two successful deals have led to the creation of a specialized service within the Bharti group- of setting up large, high quality buildings for call centers and software companies with bandwidth infrastructure provided by Bharti.

What does not work out, offers us lessons to pick up, spurs us to move quickly and gives us the wherewithal to experiment.

l What has been your role in contributing to the formation of government policy?
I have been fairly active on the policy making front. However, I have never felt the need to influence policy beyond a point. There have been times when policy drafts have actually been shown to us and our suggestions sought and implemented. That is the level of credibility and trust that we have built for ourselves-that we will always give suggestions that will work to the benefit of the country.

l What are the bottlenecks Indian telecom faces today?
The over-regulatory style of the administration is an issue. The regulator needs to wake up. It is not doing enough currently. The body needs to iron out creases and certain niggling issues need to be resolved expeditiously. India is also being held back big time because of interconnect problems. The onus is on BSNL and MTNL to sort out the interconnect issue.

l Bharti's recent CEO Conclave at Agra was dominated by your views on dealing with the Reliance threat. How long will Bharti be Sunil Mittal?
The annual CEO Conclave at Agra is my event, where I present my vision to our CEOS. I listen to others the year through and at this event, they listen to me! What we discuss at this conclave, are areas we need to work on. This time, one issue was dealing with competition involving what are the strategic pressure points and how we need to strengthen ourselves.

There have always been advantages and disadvantages of creating an icon in a company. Nearly seven to eight years ago, we took a decision to create a strong icon for branding. We have found that having a strong icon for the group helps in internal cohesion as well. Two years ago I'd say that if I'm not there, the only area that will suffer is new projects. Today if I'm not there, nothing will suffer.

Look at the operations' aspect. Every CEO is like a chief minister, with powers to take decisions on all aspects of the business. There is a list of just 13 things a CEO here cannot do. And these are all big ticket items like not changing the brand, no collaboration with external agencies, no plans to surrender licenses...things which in any case, CEOs do not want to do.

l You have been active proponents of allowing 74% foreign direct investment. Will Bharti eventually be sold out while you move on to more challenging things?
In this business, one can never say never, but right now, there are absolutely no plans to sell out. We have been in the telecom business since 1982. After BSNL, we have the most experience. If you talk of financial muscle, there is enough. As against our Rs 9000 crore investment, Reliance has invested Rs 5000 crore and the Tatas nearly Rs 4000 crore.

By March 2003, we will have 24,000 km of fiber laid out covering 87% of India's traffic. We have been working smart and are growing at a quarter million customers per month.

Despite a 700 m $ investment from Singtel, not a single person from there is on our board. More divestment is likely to take place. If you want to sell your company there are many ways of doing it.

Look at the Nandas in Escorts or the Mahindras, their stakes in their companies are even lower than ours, but they never get asked if they have plans to move on! That is because they are married to their businesses and my emotional attachment to this business is nil. But that in no way means, we are selling out.

l Who do you think are the others who have revolutionized telecom in India?
Sam Pitroda inspired me in my early years. Watching him, talking to him, moved me and fired me up. Then there was Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Nahata, Rajeev Mehrotra-not too many people. The Tatas do everything and Reliance is dabbling in telecom only now. In the telecom space today, it is essentially Bharti, for we do nothing but telecom.

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