DTH
Bharti Airtel to get new CEO in Shashwat Sharma come 2026
MUMBAI: He’s been rated as one of the top Indian CEOs. But now Bharti Airtel’s managing director & CEO Gopal Vittal, along with Sunil Mittal, has put in place a plan wherein he will move out of his current position to executive chairman come 1 January 2026. Replacing him will be chief operations officer Shashwat Sharma who will step into his shoes.
For now, Shashwat is being appointed as CEO designate, responsible for the entire end-to-end consumer business.
In the interim, the telco major has promoted Gopal to vice-chairman along with his existing duties as managing director. In this role, while continuing to lead the India business, Gopal will take on broader telecom responsibilities across the group. He is to be appointed to the board of Airtel Africa as the Bharti nominee director to provide strategic guidance. In addition, he will be responsible for driving group synergies in select areas such as network strategy, digital and technology, procurement and talent.
Gopal will be responsible for mentoring and grooming Shashwat to take over as MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel. He will start to spend time between Delhi and Bangalore.
The company announced changes at the board level too on 28 October. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, having served Airtel for nine years in his current term, will move on to the boards of Indus Towers and Bharti Hexacom. Replacing him is Rajan Bharti Mittal who returns to Airtel to be the Bharti board nominee.
DTH Operator
JC Flowers withdraws NCLT plea against Dish TV over EGM demand
Move eases pressure on DTH firm as long-running shareholder dispute cools
MUMBAI: In a breather for Dish TV India, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction has withdrawn its petition before the National Company Law Tribunal seeking directions to convene an extraordinary general meeting.
The development was disclosed by Dish TV in a regulatory filing, confirming that the petitioner chose to withdraw the case during a hearing at the Mumbai bench of the tribunal. A detailed order from the bench is still awaited.
The petition, originally filed under Sections 98 to 100 of the Companies Act, 2013, sought to push for an extraordinary general meeting to address governance issues at the company. The case had its roots in a prolonged shareholder tussle dating back to 2021, when Yes Bank, then the largest shareholder, was at odds with the promoter group led by Subhash Chandra over board reconstitution.
JC Flowers had stepped into the picture as an assignee of Yes Bank’s stressed assets, effectively continuing the legal push initiated earlier. The withdrawal now signals a pause, if not a closure, to that chapter of dispute.
While the reasons behind the withdrawal have not been formally detailed, the move reduces immediate legal pressure on Dish TV, which has been navigating both operational and regulatory challenges in recent years.
For now, the focus shifts back to the company’s business fundamentals, even as the legal dust settles, at least temporarily, on one of its more closely watched shareholder battles.
