The telecom industry organization COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) on Thursday announced the appointment of Sunil Sood as the chairman of the company who was the Managing Director & CEO of Vodafone India since 2015. Ajai Puri, who has been the Chief Operating Officer of Bharti Airtel will be the vice chairman of the association.
Sunil Sood from the past two years playing the role of the Vice Chairman of COAI and now has replaced Gopal Vittal who held the position of Chairman till now and also was Bharti Airtel’s MD and CEO for India and South Asia. The recent appointed was announced at the Annual General Body meeting for fiscal 2018-19.
COAI said in a statement, “…Sunil Sood, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone India Ltd, who was Vice Chairman of the industry body for the last two years, will now hold the position of Chairman while the Vice Chairman will be…Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Airtel Ltd.”
The Director-General of COAI Rajan S Mathews claimed that the telecom sector is responsible for contributing 6.5 percent of the national GDP. He expressed grief by stating that the sector is stumbling below a debt of Rs 7.64 lakh crore, and extra funds amounting to Rs 2 lakh crore is still needed over the period of next two years to meet the emerging needs of the digitally bound India.
“We are sure the partnership between the Government and the sector will get stronger and these targets will be achieved. The National Digital Communications Policy 2018, recently unveiled by the DoT, holds significant promises for the industry that has been facing difficult times over the last few years,” Mathews said.
The Vodafone-Idea merger is anticipated to happen this month and Sunil Sood will soon join the Vodafone Group AMAP (Africa, Middle East and the Asia Pacific) leadership team and also help governance through Board memberships.