New Delhi, Nov. 12 -- As Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises Ltd, which owns telecom company Airtel, completes 50 years in business this year, he reflects on the journey, the decisions that shaped the group and the challenges of building businesses across sectors, in a conversation with Mint at his New Delhi office.

"To start from the ground up and create a $120 billion enterprise, for me it's not going to be possible (at this stage)," said Mittal, 69, reflecting on the scale of what has been built and the limits of starting afresh at this stage of his career.

He also discussed Airtel's future, tariff hikes, investments in artificial intelligence and data centres, the group's other businesses, and his views o...