Vodafone Idea appointed COO Abhijit Kishore to take over as CEO, with the three-year term of the current chief Akshaya Moondra set to end next week.

Kishore’s three-year term is due to begin on 19 August. He joined the operator in March 2015 and held multiple senior leadership roles including head of its enterprise business.

Moondra has been at the helm during a turbulent time, with the company repeatedly turning to the markets for fresh fundraising.

He oversaw a rise in its outstanding regulatory liabilities to INR840 billion ($9.6 billion), the government double its stake in the company to 49 per cent and a loss of nearly 37 million mobile subscribers, ending June with 197.7 million.

In his final earnings brief, Moondra focused on its network improvements and subscriber gains. “The investments made over the past three quarters to expand our 4G coverage have started yielding results”.

He added 5G service operates in 22 cities, and it added some 4,800 4G towers during the recent quarter.

Capex in its fiscal Q1 2026 (ending 30 June) jumped to INR24.4 billion from INR7.6 billion a year earlier.

Its net loss in the period increased to INR66.1 billion from INR64.3 billion in the comparable period of fiscal 2025 and revenue rose 4.9 per cent to INR110.2 billion.

ARPU grew 15 per cent to INR177.00 and monthly data usage 11.2 per cent to 17.7GB.