Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of the India’s largest telecom operator’s Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, had his Apple fanboy moment on Friday.
Kavin, who himself is the Founder and CEO of Hike messenger, got an opportunity to make a presentation about the product to none other than Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc.
The younger Mittal, who also took a selfie with Cook, was beaten to his moment of glory by Mukesh Ambani’s younger son Anant. However, this was because Cook only arrived in New Delhi on Friday as part of the third day of his maiden visit to India as Apple chief.
While he meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, Cook spent Friday meeting Sunil Bharti Mittal and the leadership team at Bharti Airtel, Zomato-founder Deepinder Goyal and even found time to visit Apple franchisee stores in DLF’s Galleria mall in Gurugram.
Goyal also Tweeted a selfie with Cook and said, “Thanks for the visit to our office today @tim_cook – was great catching up. Excited about your India plans!” he wrote.
While is itinerary and discussion are being kept highly confidential, those with knowledge of the discussions said Cook discussed matters on 4G rollout in the country with Sunil Bharti Mittal and the Bharti Airtel leadership team. Gopal Vittal, CEO of India and South Asia at Bharti Airtel, was also present at the hour-long meeting with Cook.
Cook is increasingly seeing India as a growth market with sales dipping in its home market, the US. Prior to meeting the leadership team at Bharti Airtel, he already met with Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood in Mumbai along with leaders of Indian industry including ICICI Bank’s Chanda Kochhar, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Tata Consultancy Services’ CEO N Chandrasekaran.
On Saturday, when Cook meets Modi, he is expected to discuss issues on opening of Apple Stores in India. While the Centre is not keen to allow Apple to sell refurbished iPhones in India, Cook is expected to urge Modi for permission on the same.