Vi bets on DoT relief, scouts for COO role

Next chief operating officer may be an external candidate

- Jatin Grover & Devina Sengupta

Abhijit Kishore, the new chief executive officer of financially stressed Vodafone Idea, India’s third largest telecom operator, is “hopeful” that the vexed issue of adjusted gross revenue, or AGR, dues will be “resolved”.

The company said it hoped for a resolution “as soon as possible”. The telco with statutory dues racking up over ₹2 trillion noted that while talks with banks and non-banking financial companies are on to raise debt, there is a “dependency” on what the government reassesses. “We welcome the order from this Honourable Supreme Court and we are pretty hopeful the government being a 49% player to look at a long-term solution and we are engaged with the DoT (department of telecommunications),” Kishore told analysts on Tuesday in his first earnings call after taking over as the CEO.