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Tag: Vodafone

  • Neha Ahuja takes charge as director of growth for Japac at Spotify

    Neha Ahuja takes charge as director of growth for Japac at Spotify

    MUMBAI: Spotify has named Neha Ahuja director, growth for Japac, tasking her with boosting the music-streaming giant’s user base across Japan, Korea, Australia and Southeast Asia.

    Ahuja, a marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience across FMCG, telecom and media, has been with Spotify since 2019. She previously served as head of marketing for India, where she helped launch the service and guided it to market leadership within four years. She also played a key role in building local organisational capability and driving cultural relevance for the brand among India’s youth.

    Before Spotify, Ahuja held senior marketing roles at Vodafone and Procter & Gamble, spanning brand strategy, partnerships and consumer marketing. She also sits on the board of Women in Tech India, part of a global movement promoting diversity in Stem.

    In her new role, she will oversee strategy, marketing, product-market fit and payments, using data, experimentation and cultural insights to drive both free and premium growth.

    “Not every career move is upward—some are outward,” she said. “This one is about building across borders with fresh curiosity and intent.”

  • Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    LONDON: Vodafone has elevated Purwa Rathor to global senior human resources product manager for digital and artificial intelligence, promoting a 17-year company veteran as the telecoms giant accelerates its push into AI-powered workplace solutions.

    Rathor, who joined Vodafone in 2008, will spearhead the rollout of AI-driven HR technologies including Microsoft Copilot and experimental “agentic AI” assistants designed to handle everything from interview scheduling to maternity queries. The promotion marks Vodafone’s latest attempt to harness artificial intelligence for competitive advantage in an industry grappling with mounting cost pressures.

    Her track record suggests the appointment is more than corporate window-dressing. As global candidate experience manager, Rathor delivered a 50 per cent reduction in cost-per-hire and time-per-hire, while boosting application rates by 80 per cent across 28 countries. She also improved diversity hiring by 34 per cent and lifted candidate satisfaction scores by 58 points.

    The promotion comes as traditional telecoms operators face intensifying competition from digital-native rivals and pressure to slash operational costs. Vodafone’s bet on AI-powered HR automation reflects broader industry efforts to extract efficiency gains from back-office functions.

    Rathor’s career spans from financial services training roles at ICICI Prudential and India Infoline to nearly two decades architecting Vodafone’s talent acquisition systems. Her experience navigating complex regulatory environments—including negotiations with German and Spanish works councils—may prove crucial as AI deployment raises fresh concerns about worker surveillance and algorithmic bias.

    Whether Vodafone’s AI ambitions translate into sustainable cost savings or merely create new technological dependencies remains an open question. For now, the company appears willing to gamble on internal promotion over external expertise as it races to digitise its workforce operations.

  • Amazon elevates Milind Pande to spearhead India marketing push

    Amazon elevates Milind Pande to spearhead India marketing push

    MUMBAI: Amazon Web Services has promoted Milind Pande to head of marketing for India and South Asia, as the cloud computing giant seeks to strengthen its grip on the country’s $7.2 billion market.

    Pande, who has spent six years climbing AWS’s ranks, was previously head  of independent software vendor marketing, overseeing the company’s startup and software-as-a-service portfolio. His elevation comes as AWS faces mounting pressure from Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud in India’s notoriously price-conscious market.

    The appointment reflects AWS’s determination to maintain its lead in a region where it has pledged $12.7 billion in infrastructure investments through 2030. Industry insiders suggest Pande’s promotion signals the company’s shift towards a more aggressive, marketing-led growth strategy as artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across Indian enterprises.

    Pande brings 16 years of diverse experience spanning telecommunications at Vodafone, media at Viacom18, and consulting at PwC. His track record with Fortune 500 companies and deep enterprise exposure positions him to drive AWS’s next phase of expansion in the subcontinent.

    The move underscores the strategic importance of India to AWS’s global ambitions, as tech giants battle for dominance in one of the world’s fastest-growing cloud markets. With competition heating up, Pande’s challenge will be translating AWS’s technical advantages into sustained market leadership through sharper brand positioning and customer engagement.

  • Hemant Rupani to head Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as CEO

    Hemant Rupani to head Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages as CEO

    BENGALURU:  Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB), India’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, has named Hemant Rupani as its new chief executive, effective 8 September. Rupani takes over from Juan Pablo Rodriguez, who is moving on to a new role within the global Coca-Cola system.

    Rupani, a seasoned operator with stints across FMCG, telecom, and tech, currently serves as Mondelez’s business unit president for southeast Asia, overseeing operations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. He joined Mondelez in 2016 and has held leadership roles in India and Vietnam, rising to his current post in 2022.

    The appointment comes at a pivotal time for HCCB, following Coca-Cola’s move in December 2024 to sell a 40 per cent stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings Pvt Ltd—the parent company of HCCB—to the Jubilant Bhartia group.

    A mechanical engineering graduate from Regional Engineering College, Jaipur, with an MBA in marketing from FMS Delhi, Rupani began his career in 1997 at ICI India. He has since worked with PepsiCo, Infosys, Vodafone, and Britannia, steadily climbing the leadership ladder across sectors.

    He will report to the HCCB board and is expected to steer the company’s next phase of growth, amid rising investment in India and intensifying competition in the beverage market.

    The Coca-Cola Co, listed on NYSE as KO, operates in over 200 markets and employs more than 700,000 people through its global bottling partners.

  • Aman Kishore appointed head of marketing at Bits Pilani Digital

    Aman Kishore appointed head of marketing at Bits Pilani Digital

    MUMBAI: Bits Pilani Digital, the online education arm of India’s esteemed Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, has announced the appointment of Aman Kishore as its new head of marketing. Kishore, a seasoned professional with over 24 years of experience in integrated marketing and communication, steps into the role with immediate effect, having joined in April 2025.

    His extensive career spans a diverse portfolio of leading brands, including Samsung Mobiles, BMW, Mini Honda, Lufthansa, Nestle, Vodafone, Dabur, Walmart, Singapore Red Cross, and Mundi Pharma. At Bits Pilani Digital, Kishore will leverage his expertise in integrated campaigns, digital strategy, media integration, and performance marketing to expand the institution’s legacy to a wider audience.

    Before this latest assignment, Kishore served as integrated campaign lead at Cheil India, where he spearheaded marketing efforts for Samsung Mobiles’ innovative A-series, M-series, and F-series, focusing on GenZ engagement through digital, influencer, and social content. He also led the Samsung CSR initiative, ‘Solve for Tomorrow.

    His prior experience includes a notable four-year tenure as deputy general manager at The Times Of India, where he managed business development, revenue growth, and P&L for a unit responsible for marquee events such as the Literature Festival and Global Music Festival – Life in Colour. He also held significant roles at Serviceplan India, overseeing integrated media for BMW, MINI, and Lufthansa, and at Ogilvy & Mather, where he led business and strategy for clients like Honda Jazz and Vodafone.

    Kishore’s appointment signals Bits Pilani Digital’s commitment to robust marketing and a content-driven approach as it expands its digital offerings in data science and artificial intelligence. He brings a proven track record of developing communication solutions that deliver business goals, fostering consumer insights, and mentoring teams, all while maintaining a keen focus on technology and digital innovation.

  • Vodafone and Cyient roll out AI-fuelled solution to smarten up global network ops

    Vodafone and Cyient roll out AI-fuelled solution to smarten up global network ops

    MUMBAI: In a world where telecom towers are smarter than traffic lights and data is the new diesel, Vodafone and Cyient have thrown their collective tech muscle behind Vismon — an AI-powered Network Configuration Management platform poised to give network chaos a serious boot.

    Unveiled on June 24 in Hyderabad, the platform is already showing signs of transforming the telco landscape. Developed jointly by Vodafone and Cyient, Vismon is designed to consolidate configuration data across geographies, integrating both logical and physical inventory into one smart platform. It enables Vodafone’s teams across local markets to benchmark configurations, sniff out anomalies, and track deployments with clinical precision.

    Vismon isn’t just a shiny new dashboard. It has delivered measurable impact in Vodafone’s live deployments. The platform has slashed time spent compiling cross-market reports by 70 per cent, sped up decision-making by three times, and is expected to cut configuration errors by 50 per cent. In a sector where milliseconds matter and mistakes are expensive, these numbers scream efficiency.

    “Vismon provides the strategic foundation to oversee configuration data across all markets, enabling us to harmonise practices, identify best-performing setups, and optimise our networks more effectively than ever”, said Vodafone Network Development Digital Strategy manager Mostafa Noureldien.

    Cyient VP & regional head of sales Joaquim Croca echoed the sentiment, calling the platform a symbol of purposeful automation. “At Cyient, we are proud to partner with Vodafone in their journey toward smarter, faster, and more intelligent network operations”, he said. “This AI-driven platform exemplifies how intelligent automation and data-led insights can drive real impact—delivering agility, consistency, and strategic clarity at scale”.

    The move underscores Vodafone and Cyient’s mutual commitment to pushing the frontiers of digital network management. As telecom networks become increasingly data-heavy and globally integrated, Vismon could well become the blueprint for intelligent infrastructure engineering.

  • Ketan K Bharati joins The House of Abhinandan Lodha to lead media

    Ketan K Bharati joins The House of Abhinandan Lodha to lead media

    MUMBAI: Ketan K Bharati, the marketing maverick who has shaped campaigns across telecom, FMCG, tech, and media giants, has now planted his flag at The House of Abhinandan Lodha (HoABL) as head – media strategy & performance marketing.

    With a career spanning nearly two decades and marquee brands like Truecaller, Reckitt, Vodafone, Disney Star, and GroupM in his rearview mirror, Bharati’s next chapter promises to blend data muscle, storytelling flair, and go-to-market wizardry for one of India’s most ambitious real estate disruptors.

    Bharati, was most recently VP – global marketing ops at Truecaller, where he steered GTM rollouts, global launches, and even lit up Times Square.

    Backed by stints managing Rs 500 crore media portfolios, landing Gold at Spikes Asia, and anchoring revenue surges at Fox International and Reckitt, Bharati is no stranger to performance-led growth. His Vodafone days saw him turn cricket carnivals into brand goldmines with the IPL and World Cup. At GroupM, he cracked efficiency gains for brands like Dove and PepsiCo with data-first media buying.

    At HoABL, he’s expected to fuse full-funnel performance with digital-first thinking, supporting the brand’s audacious land-tokenisation push and national expansion.

    In a world where land is being reimagined as a lifestyle asset, HoABL’s latest hire signals it’s not just playing the game. It’s rewriting the script.

  • Vi for victory? spectrum swaps, ARPU hikes and 5G boost Vodafone Idea

    Vi for victory? spectrum swaps, ARPU hikes and 5G boost Vodafone Idea

    MUMBAI: The fourth quarter of FY25 brought a much-needed signal boost for Vodafone Idea (Vi), as the beleaguered telco dialled up its strongest financial performance in years powered by equity infusions, spectrum-to-stock swaps, and an aggressive push into 5G and rural expansion.

    For the fiscal year ended 31 March 2025, Vi reported revenue of Rs 435.7 billion, marking a 2.2 per cent year-on-year increase. More notably, its annual cash EBITDA (pre-Ind AS 116) rose 9.5 per cent to Rs 92 billion, a third straight year of growth. The company’s Q4FY25 revenue hit Rs 110.1 billion, its highest average daily revenue in five years.

    But it’s not just numbers that changed. In a game-changing spectrum-to-equity conversion, Vi allotted 36.95 billion shares worth Rs 369.5 billion to the Government of India, boosting GoI’s stake to 49 per cent. With an additional Rs 180 billion from a public offer, and Rs 40 billion via preferential issues to Vodafone and Aditya Birla Group, Vi raised a total of Rs 614 billion in equity this year. That’s more than a capital top-up, it’s a lifeline.

    The subscriber base stood at 198.2 million at the end of Q4, with average revenue per user (ARPU) rising to Rs 175 up 14.2 per cent YoY. Vi also added over 6,900 new 4G towers this quarter (a company record since the merger), expanded 4G coverage to 83 per cent of India’s population, and improved 4G speeds by 28 per cent.

    Capex for FY25 totalled Rs 95.7 billion, with Q4 alone accounting for Rs 42.3 billion, Vi’s highest in a quarter post-merger. The company also brought down its bank debt from Rs 40.4 billion to Rs 23.3 billion and closed FY25 with a cash and bank balance of Rs 99.3 billion.

    However, challenges remain. Vi reported a consolidated loss of Rs 273.8 billion for the year and still holds spectrum and AGR liabilities aggregating over Ts 1.9 trillion. It has another Rs 164.3 billion in AGR dues falling due in FY26, and is in talks with banks for additional debt funding.

    To offset these burdens, Vi is diversifying its offerings. It launched new “Limitless” postpaid plans and hero prepaid plans to woo consumers, expanded its retail footprint to over 500 flagship stores and 2,500 touchpoints, and introduced premium international roaming benefits and lost baggage insurance.

    Even its B2B wing is flexing muscle, signing an MoU with West Bengal for MSME digital skilling and partnering with HPE to deliver enterprise-grade network solutions.

    Vi’s signal to the market is clear: it’s not just staying alive, it’s aiming for a comeback. With spectrum dues now equity, ARPU trending upwards, and credit ratings upgraded to BBB- (Stable) by ICRA and CARE, FY25 could be the year Vi finally got its second wind.

    Now, all eyes are on August 2025, when the company plans to beam 5G across all 17 of its spectrum circles. Until then, the mantra is clear: invest, expand, and connect.

  • Skyworth Digital appoints new vice president to lead expansion

    Skyworth Digital appoints new vice president to lead expansion

    MUMBAI: After steering Skyworth Digital’s India operations for seven years, Jayaprakash Thulasiraman has been tapped to lead the company’s new business strategy as vice president. The television and broadband equipment maker announced the appointment on LinkedIn, where it outlined the veteran’s remit: emerging business incubation, strategic partnerships, government affairs and “special assignments that call for experience, insight—and a spark of bold thinking”.

    Thulasiraman brings three decades of experience from technology and telecommunications heavyweights including Reliance, Vodafone, Motorola and Huawei. During his tenure as Skyworth’s general manager for India, the firm secured a coveted position among Tata Play’s top three partners in 2025.

    The appointment comes as Skyworth seeks to shore up its position in the broadband-focused digital television market. Under Thulasiraman’s leadership as country manager, the firm expanded its portfolio beyond traditional set-top boxes to include broadband customer premise equipment and fixed wireless access devices—a strategic pivot to capture the growing convergence of television and internet services.

    Before joining Skyworth in 2018, Thulasiraman held leadership roles at Optiva, Amdocs and Huawei, where he managed accounts for major Indian telecoms. Earlier in his career, he oversaw Vodafone India’s terminal business, orchestrating the first official iPhone launch in the country in 2007.

  • Vodafone Idea chooses HCLSoftware to automate 4G & 5G Networks

    Vodafone Idea chooses HCLSoftware to automate 4G & 5G Networks

    MUMBAI:   It’s getting future ready. Telecom service provider Vodafone Idea (Vi) has partnered with HCLSoftware, a division of HCLTech, to enhance the efficiency and performance of its 4G and 5G networks. Using HCL Augmented Network Automation (HCL ANA), a cutting-edge AI-powered platform, Vi aims to streamline network operations, optimise energy usage, and deliver an improved customer experience.

    The HCL ANA platform, a multi-vendor self-optimising network (MV-SON) system, enables seamless integration of Vi’s Ericsson and Samsung networks while ensuring future readiness with SMO (ORAN) compatibility. The platform’s open architecture allows Vi to independently manage and automate its networks, reducing reliance on OEM-specific tools and enhancing sustainability.

    The key benefits include improved network reliability and speed for Vi customers,  reduced energy consumption and operational costs and enhanced scalability for network expansion.

    Vodafone Idea CTO Jagbir Singh highlighted:  “This partnership reflects our commitment to leveraging advanced Made-in-India technologies to improve services, reduce costs, and prepare for telecom innovations.”

    HCLSoftware  SVP/GM  Neeraj Purandare  stated: “This collaboration will benefit Indian telecom users and boost local technology development and innovation.”