COAI appoints Vodafone Idea CEO Balesh Sharma as Chairman

COAI, the apex industry association representing leading Telecom, Internet, Technology and Digital Services companies, concluded its Annual General Body Meeting for the Financial Year 2018-19, with the announcement of its leadership for the term 2019-20.

Balesh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Idea, will now hold the position of Chairman while Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel Limited, will continue to be the Vice Chairman of the association.

Balesh Sharma has rich experience of over two and half decades spanning across cultures and geographies. Previously, Balesh had been the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Vodafone India. He has earlier also held several senior management positions in India and internationally including as Business Head and was the Chairman and CEO of Vodafone Malta. Prior to returning to India, he was the Chairman and CEO of Vodafone Czech Republic, where he successfully transformed the business and delivered strong market share growth with net promoter score leadership and strong employee engagement.  

Ajai Puri is the Chief Operating Officer (India and South Asia) at Bharti Airtel Ltd. He has been with Bharti Airtel since 2004 and has held several senior leadership positions including Director – Market Operations, Director and CEO – DTH, and CEO – Kolkata & West Bengal, Odisha. Prior to joining Bharti Airtel, Puri served as the Business Head - Foods at Cargill Foods India. He began his career with VST India Ltd, an associate company of British American Tobacco (UK).   

“I am honoured to take on the role and responsibility of the Chairman of COAI. The COAI and the telecom industry have worked shoulder to shoulder with the government, policy makers and regulator to ensure that the benefits of the connectivity are accessible to all. Today, we have a billion connections, broadband availability across the country, over half a billion mobile internet users. An ambitious National Digital Communications Policy sets the course forward for the sector holistically. The focus now should be on driving an intense collaborative effort amongst all stakeholders to deliver on India’s ambitions, aspirations and potential. At COAI we will drive a more concerted and collaborative effort towards this for we are deeply committed to translate the dream of Digital India into reality," said Balesh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited and Chairman, COAI.

The AGM was followed by an informative High Level Leaders Panel Discussion on “5G in India – When and How?”, which saw contribution from senior delegates from the Government and the industry leaders, including Shri Anshu Prakash, Additional Secretary (T), Ministry of Communications; Shri Sunil K Gupta, Secretary, TRAI; Balesh Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Idea, Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei India and Ankit Agarwal, CEO, Connectivity Solutions, Sterlite Technologies.