Meet Mukesh Ambani, Akash Ambani’s Jio rival who once earned Rs 169 crore salary

Gopal Vittal is the CEO of Airtel. His firm is the biggest business rival of Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio. Vittal said in an interview with ET that Airtel isn't planning to launch a locked feature phone like Jio Bharat. Vittal, however, said that his firm is not in race for 5G coverage, and that Airtel is focussing on quality services. He said his company is also focussing on upgrading people from feature phones to a smartphone. Who is Gopal Vittal?

Gopal Vittal is also a philanthropist. According to reports, he earned Rs 169.73 crore in 2017-2018. He is also the MD of Bharti Airtel.

He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He has worked for only two companies in his long career – Airtel and HUL.

He did his schooling from Andhra Pradesh’s Rishi Valley School. He did his graduation from Madras Christian College. He completed his MBA in 1990 and joined HUL. 

After 16 years of service, Sunil Bharti Mittal hired him in Airtel as the marketing operations head.

Under him, the company’s customer base increased from 33 million to 122 million.

Vittal rejoined HUL after 2 years. After 4 years, he rejoined Airtel in 2012. He was the director of special projects and international business strategy.

In 2013, he became the CEO of the company.

In 2022-23, he earned over Rs 15 crore.