Bharti Airtel reorganizes Indian business

Indian telco Bharti Airtel said it is reorganizing its domestic operations, whereby the current three regional hubs will be regrouped into eight hubs, reporting to a newly created position of director of market operations.

The company said the new organization design, effective March 1, aims to further its initiatives to build a more connected organization which is closer to the marketplace, the Hindu Business Line reported Thursday.

The new role of market operations director will be taken up by Ajai Puri, currently the operations director for north and east regions. He will report to Gopal Vittal, the incoming CEO for Indian operations at Bharti Airtel.

According to the Hindu Business Line report, telecom circle CEOs--who report to a hub CEO--will continue to operate with the same level of independence. Each hub CEO provides overall guidance to the circles under it, the report added.

The news is the latest major restructuring at Bharti Airtel, following a top management reshuffle last month. Sanjay Kapoor, its CEO for India and South Asia, will quit in March and be replaced by Vittal, who is currently the group director of special projects. Vittal was also recently made joint managing director.

The Hindu Business Line report noted the management reshuffling continued at Bharti.

Raghunath Mandava, currently operations director for west and distribution, has been appointed director of customer experience and will report to Vittal.

Najib Khan, chief marketing officer of Airtel Business, has been appointed CEO Homes and Office, where he would be responsible for the company's telemedia business, small and midsize business (SMB), long-term evolution (LTE) and Wi-Fi.

K. Srinivas, who was currently No. 2 after CEO Kapoor, will take over as director of special projects come March 4, and report directly to Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel.