The Network Strategist

Brought up in Kirandul, which now falls in the state of Chattisgarh in Central part of India, Abhay Savargaonkar, 49, has been very close to the public sector. Right from his growing up years in Kendriya Vidyalaya at the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) township Kirandul, where his father worked at NMDC, to the time when he was DGM of new technologies at BSNL – his life has been rich with exposure to the workings of the public sector unit.

This electronics and telecommunications engineering graduate gave up an opportunity to build an R&D career at DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) to join the Indian Telecom Services which took him places including DoT, BSNL and a training stint in the US, which turned his exposure global.

Rich with that experience and a desire to do more in emerging areas in telecommunications saw him move to Bharti Airtel in 2003, which was then expanding and getting onto the mobile revolution trend that India was to witness. Taking a plunge in private sector for someone who has grown up on the safety net mindset of public sector was a big shift.

Contributing to and being part of Airtel’s fast paced growth story has made it worth it for him. Within the organization he rose to take charge as CTO in 2014. The network rollouts at the India’s largest telco under the leadership of its CEO Govind Vittal, (read page 16) are being led by Savargaonkar along with his team.

He is instrumental in consolidating Airtel’s position in the market going from strength to strength contributing in the development of the 4G ecosystem in India. The telco continues to invest in 2G and 3G as well. Given the dynamics of India market, it will be a technology mix that will count. VoLTE is still some years away, according to Savargaonkar. nanditas@cybermedia.co.in