Micromax gets new chairman from Airtel

India's second largest smartphone maker, on Thursday named former chief executive of Bharti Airtel Sanjay Kapoor as chairman of its board.

As the company eyes pole position in the smartphone market and aspires to be a global brand, it is attracting top talent from the industry. Kapoor's appointment comes two weeks after it hired Vineet Taneja from rival Samsung Electronics India to be its chief executive officer. Micromax has also named Badal Bagri, formerly with Airtel, as its new chief financial officer.

Micromax said Kapoor's experience and expertise will provide impetus to the company as it builds a global hardware brand from India.

"If you have to become a global brand, you need to understand scale, capabilities and enhance your corporate structure," co-founder Rahul Sharma said. "I am confident that he (Kapoor) will be able to provide the required strategic direction to take our billion-dollar business to the next level of growth and expansion."

"He will be instrumental in building synergies for our existing international businesses and spearhead our foray into other international markets in the near future," Sharma said. There are not many Indian product companies which have become multinationals, he said.

Micromax, which is present in South Asian countries, has started selling in Russia as well.

"Russia is doing quite well and we have to multiply, stabilize and grow our brand forward from here," Sharma said.

Kapoor says that the smart devices market is poised to grow manifold over the coming years. "Data curve is at (its) very inception and with penetration of smart devices lower than 10%, it will only go northwards from here," he said.

"This top management comes with diverse experience and contacts to scale up the business globally," said Katyayan Gupta, analyst at Forrester Research. However, he said it also reflects some kind of instability at the top level.

"Proliferation in data services and cutting-edge devices that make technology affordable for the masses will be critical for the next phase of growth and I am confident that Micromax will lead this transition," Kapoor said.

Kapoor quit Airtel in May 2013. He was chief executive officer for India and South Asia at Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom company. He is a member of the board at Bennett, Coleman and Co. and PVR. Before joining the Bharti Group, Kapoor had worked with Xerox India as director of operations support.