Sunil Bharti Mittal becomes first Indian to be knighted by King Charles III of United Kingdom

Indian telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal has been awarded Honorary Knighthood by Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and different Commonwealth Realms, in recognition of his providers to UK-India enterprise relations.

Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, which owns India’s second largest telecom agency Airtel, is the first Indian to be awarded the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) by King Charles III, in accordance to an organization assertion.

The KBE is among the many highest honours conferred by the British Sovereign to civilians. It is awarded in an honorary capability to international nationals.

Mittal, whose Airtel Africa is listed on the London Stock Exchange, in latest months led the revival of OneWeb (now often called Eutelsat), main a consortium with the UK Government and different strategic buyers to supply satellite tv for pc broadband providers globally.

He is a member of the India-UK CEO Forum in addition to a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Circle of Advisors on the University of Cambridge.

Moreover, he has served on the governing physique of the London Business School (LBS) and as a member of the India Advisory Group on the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Commenting on the honour, Mittal, 66, mentioned, “I’m deeply humbled by this gracious recognition from His Majesty, King Charles. [The] UK and India have historic relations, which are actually coming into a brand new period of elevated cooperation and collaboration.”

He added, “I stay dedicated to working in the direction of strengthening the financial and bilateral commerce relationships between our two nice nations. I’m grateful to the Government of UK, whose assist and eager consideration to the wants of enterprise has been essential in making the nation a pretty funding vacation spot.”

In India, the Airtel founder had been bestowed with the Padma Bhushan award, the third-highest amongst India’s civilian honours, in 2007.

Sunil Mittal is in illustrious firm of Indian recipients of KBE

The KBE, conferred for a pre-eminent contribution in any subject of exercise, is awarded in an honorary capability to international nationals. While the Knighthood conferred on UK nationals provides them the title of “Sir” or “Dame”, non-UK nationals awarded the honour add KBE (or DBE for ladies) after their title.

Previous Indian recipients of the Honorary KBE embrace industrialists Ratan Tata (2009) and Jamshed Irani (1997), and music legend Pandit Ravi Shankar (2001), on whom the award was conferred by the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The investiture ceremony for Sunil Bharti Mittal will be carried out by the British High Commissioner to India at a later date, when he’ll formally hand over the royal insignia to Mittal.