Intermission E03: Airtel

Stream a video, send a message, call a loved one. For nearly 474 million Indians, that connection runs through Bharti Airtel.

Over three decades, the company has made it through price wars, near-bankruptcy, a botched overseas acquisition, and two incursions from Reliance. Each time, it weathered the crisis and came back stronger. Investors who held on through every crisis have been rewarded with returns that match the best businesses in India. 

But the forces that shaped Airtel — regulation, technology, and competition — have never stopped moving. Jio is back, this time with a $110 billion bet on AI and data centres. The hyperscalers are customers today and competitors tomorrow. And the telecom industry is shifting from minutes to bytes to tokens. 

At the centre of it all is Sunil Bharti Mittal, a founder who operates with the intensity of someone still trying to prove himself, even after building a company worth more than $100 billion. He turns 70 in 2027. He wants to raise his family's stake in Airtel from 40% to 51% — a Rs 1 lakh crore buyback he believes can be funded through dividends and share repurchases over three to four years. The question that now hangs over Airtel is what happens to it when Mittal is no longer at its core.

Airtel has survived every version of telecom so far. But it hasn't fully solved its three-body problem yet.

Where does it go from here?

We also have an interactive webpage to explore the history of Airtel Finance with reading lists, infographics and source notes: https://the-ken.com/intermission/the-unkillable-network-bharti-airtel/

You can also watch the episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dONpkY7-U

Corrections

In the interest of accuracy, this section documents any factual errors made during the episode, along with the correct information.

• Light speed — Rohin said light travels at 200,000 km/s. The correct figure is roughly 300,000 km/s.
• Gopal Vittal's age — Rohin said Gopal Vittal was in his 30s when he became CEO of Airtel. He was actually in his 40s. Seetha corrects this at 4:14:30.

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Chapters:

00:00 — Introduction
4:09— Chapter 1: Ludhiana — India's industrial Manchester
16:00 — Chapter 2: Delhi — School of power & hard knocks
41:07 — Chapter 3: Policy pivot and partnership model
1:09:27 — Chapter 4: The Reliance juggernaut's first attack
1:31:05 — Chapter 5: Akhil Gupta, the 2000s, and the art of financial judo
1:54:42 — Chapter 6: The Singaporean pillar
2:03:31 — Chapter 7: Gopal Vittal, the flawless executor from HUL
2:29:36 — Chapter 8: The Africa no-yes-no-yes story
2:45:02 — Chapter 9: The Airtel culture
2:59:47 — Chapter 10: The zero rating debacle
3:11:27 — Chapter 11: The three-body problem and the 2G scam
3:21:58 — Chapter 12: The Reliance juggernaut is now "Jio"
3:52:04 — Chapter 13: Airtel after/without Sunil Mittal

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Credits:

Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G
Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao
Director: Vijay Subramaniam
Video Producer: Vishnu S
Sound Design and Technical Producer: Rajiv CN
Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra
Art Direction: Kavipriya OG
Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath

Production Agency: Nesara Films
Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap
DoP: Subash KP
Animation:⁠⁠ Karthik N
Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Jayesh Sahu
Colourist: Akhil Raj
Graphic Design and Styleframes: Anusha Sarah
On-Set Production: Veeresh and team
Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team
Spot Edit: Girish
Set Design: Saanvi Joshi, Thejaswini

Promotions: Pranav Pate, Adhavan RK
Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng
Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

'Intermission' Title Track by Sameer Rahat

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About Intermission:

Intermission dives into the histories of iconic Indian companies. It was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our sponsor for season 1.
Disclosure: Zerodha’s perennial fund, Rainmatter Capital, is an investor in The Ken.

About The Ken:
The Ken is India’s first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, and startups in India. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.

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What is Intermission?

Every great Indian enterprise has a story worth telling in full.

With Intermission, The Ken's flagship long-form podcast, hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Seetharaman G do exactly that—tracing the origins, turning points, and defining strategies of the companies that shaped modern India.