Following its Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the 2022-2023 financial year, India’s DIPA has announced new leadership positions for the 2023-2034 period.
Dhananjay Joshi, the CEO of Brookfield owned towerco Summit Digitel, has been appointed chairman.
Joshi succeeds long-standing chairman Akhil Gupta, who has been in the role since 2011. Gupta also served as chairman of Bharti Infratel until its merger with Indus Towers in 2020.
“This appointment reflects our resolute dedication to propelling digital infrastructure and fostering innovation within our industry,” Summit Digitel said in a Linkedin Post.
American Tower’s CEO for India, Sandeep Girotra has also been appointed to a leadership role, and will begin serving as vice-chairman alongside Joshi on 1st October.
Girotra replaces the former executive vice president of American Tower Asia Pacific, Amit Sharma, in the role at DIPA.
Gupta and Sharma will remain members of DIPA’s executive committee.
Gupta accepted a request from the committee to serve as a Patron Member, while Sharma agreed to be DIPA’s special invitee for all executive committee meetings to provide insights, advice, and expertise to help steer the association's activities.
DIPA is the industry body for telecom infrastructure companies in India, and works with government and regulators on matters of policy and regulation.
It re-branded to DIPA in 2021, after formerly being known at the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association.
Speaking with Capacity’s sister publication TowerXchange at the time, DIPA's director general, Tilak Dua, said the rebrand was to reflect the expanded scope of India’s towercos and to align itself with emerging technologies such as 5G, Iot and AI.
Alongside Summit Digitel and American Tower India, the body counts towercos such as Indus Towers and Ascend Telecom Infrastructure as members, alongside Energy Service Company Applied Solar Technologies, and in building solution providers Crest Digital and iBus.
