Vodafone Idea CEO Balesh Sharma Steps Down, Ravinder Takkar Announced as New CEO

Furthermore, Ravinder has been involved in the Indian telecom industry since 2007 when Vodafone Group entered the Indian market. He has held a number of senior roles in Strategy and Business Development and he was also the CEO of Vodafone Enterprise business.

Talking about Balesh Sharma, he has been the CEO of Vodafone Idea ever since the completion of the merger. To recall, Balesh was the CEO of Vodafone India, and after the merger, he was announced as the first CEO of the merged entity.

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman Aditya Birla Group and Vodafone Idea Limited, said, “I would like to thank Balesh for his leadership and the successful integration of the two businesses. Under Balesh’s stewardship, Vodafone Idea has realised a significant proportion of the synergies in a much shorter timescale than originally estimated. I wish him every success in his next role. I am pleased to welcome Ravinder Takkar as our new MD & CEO. Ravinder is well versed with the Vodafone Idea business context and I am confident that he will successfully steer the company through the next phase of development and help unlock its full potential.”

Vodafone Idea Struggling to Make a Mark in the Industry

Vodafone Idea merger was proposed back in March 2017, but the merged entity became operational from August 31, 2018. Vodafone Idea Limited started operations with over 430 million subscribers, and in a matter of three quarters, the subscriber base of the company came down by a massive 110 million to around 320 million. Not only in terms of subscriber base, but Vodafone Idea also did not make any major move in the industry to make the subscribers happy, which had hurt the telco badly.

It’s also expected that Vodafone Idea’ subscriber base will go even down going forward and it will be interesting to see how the telco plans to tackle this issue.