As many as eight Indian-origin persons, including those working with Tatas and Bharti group, have been named among 40 young leaders of the global telecom industry.

Indians featured in the '40 under 40' list by Global Telecoms Business (GTB), a telecommunications magazine, include Srinivasa Addepalli of Tata Communications, Pankaj Agrawal (Aircel), Ajay Chitkara (Bharti Airtel), Gauri Raizada (Tata Teleservices) and Rene Meza (Airtel Kenya), Mukesh Bavisi (Exponential-e), Udit Mehrotra (Shyam Networks) and Upendra Poranki (Nokia Siemens Networks).

The last year's list had only one Indian -- Srinivasa Addepalli. On Srinivasa Addepalli, GTB said that he "embodies the spirit of adventure that Tata Communications represents.  Addepalli has played a pivotal role in this journey as the cocreator and enabler of the company's unique strategy."

Regarding Agrawal GTB said that he played a key role in transforming Aircel from a regional operator to a pan-Indian operator, while Ajay Chitkara has been the "catalyst to build a business from scratch to a USD 450 million operation today."

Chitkara is one of the youngest CEOs at Bharti Airtel and in the Indian telecom industry. The magazine said that Rene Meza has done an "outstanding job" in the development of telecommunications in east Africa.

The coveted list also include Batelco's Enas Al Fardan, France Telecom Orange's Christophe Alter, BT Global Services' Sian Baldwin, Julien Ducarroz of Orange, Alcatel-Lucent's Heather Kirksey, Mikhail Gerchuk of MTS, Vodafone's Bryan Littlefair.

For the study, respondents were asked who they thought are the global telecom industry's "young leaders of today and the leaders of tomorrow".

To prepare the list, only those born on or after July 1, 1971, were considered.

Airtel targets 72% population coverage in Bangladesh in 2011

Bharti acquired 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom in Jan 2010 and subsequently launched brand Airtel in Bangladesh in Dec 2010

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Saturday said that it's Bangladesh subsidiary, Airtel Bangladesh has crossed 5 million customer mark and will provide coverage to 72 per cent of country's population by end of 2011.

"Airtel's remarkable journey to 5 million customers in Bangladesh is a testament to the vision and commitment of the company," Bharti Airtel President Mobile Services Atul Bindal said in a statement. In January 2010, Bharti had acquired 70 percent stake in Warid Telecom and subsequently launched brand Airtel in Bangladesh in December 2010.

Airtel Bangladesh said it has added 160 new towns to its network spread that penetrates to a total of 2,100 plus towns across the country and now has 2,220 telecom towers installed in the country.

As part of its expansion drive, the company will set-up additional 600 service centres in Bangladesh by March 2012.

The present number of Airtel Bangladesh service centres could not be ascertained at the time of filing the report.