London, May 7: Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel's acquisition of MTN in South Africa, if successful, would be the biggest thing to happen to the two countries since Mahatma Gandhi, says international business magazine Economist.

"It would be the biggest thing to pass between India and South Africa since Mahatma Gandhi moved from one country to the other," Economist said in a report on its website.

Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel and MTN said separately that the two firms have initiated "exploratory discussions" for a possible buyout of the South African mobile player. If successful, the deal could catapult Bharti among the world's five biggest mobile operators.

While Bharti has denied having made any bid so far, saying the talks are only exploratory as yet, a report in the British daily Financial Times said yesterday that the Indian firm has put in an indicative bid worth about 19 billion dollars for a controlling 51 per cent stake in Africa's largest mobile phone operator.

"That would make it the heftiest overseas acquisition ever made by an Indian firm, more than Tata Steel paid for Corus, a British steelmaker, and seven times the amount India invested in the whole of Africa over the ten years to 2004," Economist report said.

"The deal would unite the leading companies in the world's two most promising mobile markets. In neither market have penetration rates yet exceeded a third of the population. India is adding more subscribers per month than any other country," it added.