Vodafone Idea COO Abhijit Kishore Re-Elected As COAI Chairperson

Vodafone Idea Chief Operating Officer Abhijit Kishore will continue to hold the position of COAI chairperson for 2025-26 while Bharti Airtel Chief Regulatory Officer Rahul Vatts will be the vice chairperson, the industry body said in a release on Wednesday. COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, has concluded its Annual General Body meeting for fiscal 2024-25, it said.

"The COAI Leadership for 2025-26 was also announced at the meeting...Abhijit Kishore, Chief Operating Officer, Vodafone Idea, will once again hold the position of Chairperson while Rahul Vatts, Chief Regulatory Officer, Bharti Airtel, will be the Vice Chairperson," it said.

Kishore has experience of over three decades with the Indian telecom industry across functions, organisations and geographies. Prior to taking on the role of COO, he was heading the Enterprise Business of Vodafone Idea as the Chief Enterprise Business Officer.

Under him, VIL Business introduced technologies such as integrated IoT, managed services and security as a service to cater to businesses in the digital era.

Vatts has 29 years of experience and is an expert on telecom and broadcasting licensing, economic regulations, spectrum management and regulatory litigation.

As the chief regulatory officer of Bharti Airtel, Vatts heads the government relations, policy and regulatory interfaces across the company’s business spanning mobility broadband, DTH, data centre, submarine cables, its international subsidiaries and all digital lines of business.

He is chair of GSMA’s spectrum policy working group and a member of GSMA’s global policy group as well as the spectrum strategy and management group. Vatts is also a governing council member of several telecom standardisation bodies in India.

COAI Director General SP Kochhar noted that the telecom industry has been resilient among challenges and opportunities and continues to serve the nation as an essential service and as a value-added horizontal. It supports other verticals with robust digital connectivity.

"As India advances with 5G and allied technologies, COAI is optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead for the industry and trusts that the leadership will continue to be instrumental in driving the association and the sector’s efforts and growth forward," he said.