Former Chief Executive Officer of Nokia India P Balaji will join Vodafone India as Director – Regulatory and External Affairs next month. Balaji’s role is being currently managed by two executives.

While TV Ramachandran is currently the Resident Director – Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations and Rohit Adya is the Director – External Affairs. Both are set to retire over the next few months. Ramachandran has been associated with the Indian telecom sector for over 30 years.

He was earlier the Director-General of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India and was the face of the GSM industry. Ramachandran told BusinessLine that he plans to continue in the telecom sector as a consultant.

Balaji also has been associated with the telecom industry for over two decades and has earlier worked with Ramachandran on industry issues. Prior to joining Nokia, Balaji was the CEO of Sony Ericsson.

But his new role at Vodafone is similar to what he was doing at Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson where he was managing regulatory and industry relations.

“I am really delighted to join Vodafone India and am looking forward to working there. It’s great to be associated with the Vodafone brand and the team,” Balaji told BusinessLine .

But some major challenges await Balaji in his new role including the tax dispute and issues related to spectrum. This is where his experience in Ericsson will help.

Vodafone said that it was fine-tuning the organisation structure by merging the Regulatory and External Affairs functions for there are strong areas of synergy between them.

While Ramachandran may continue to function in an advisory role, Adya will continue to be the Chairman of the Vodafone Foundation. He will be involved in setting up the CSR activities of Vodafone in India and will drive the governance around this.

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