Ten leadership changes, dated and sourced. ALTEN India brought in Cyient’s former president and chief operating officer as chief executive, and Hinduja Tech named its operating head chief executive from November. SUN Mobility appointed separate chief executives for itself and for Indofast Energy, its joint venture with Indian Oil. Google Cloud India’s managing director left and is reported to be joining Sarvam AI, Cummins India named a managing director from its parent’s Power Systems business, and Pidilite picked the finance chief who will succeed Sandeep Batra in 2027. BBDO, NielsenIQ, Cipla Health and Turtle Wax account for the rest.
5 Oct
Gaurav Kaul said on LinkedIn that he had taken charge as managing director and chief executive of Cipla Health. He joined Cipla in March 2021 as chief commercial head for respiratory and had been chief commercial head of the India prescription business since February 2025. Before Cipla he held sales and general management roles at GSK Consumer Healthcare India. Source: BestMediaInfo, 6 October 2026, reporting his LinkedIn post of 5 October.
6 Oct
Prabhakar Atla took over as chief executive of ALTEN India, succeeding Balaji Viswanathan. He was most recently president and chief operating officer of Cyient, where he earlier served as president and chief financial officer, and has more than 30 years in engineering, IT and technology services. Pascal Amore, the group’s head of Asia Pacific, said India “is core to the ambitions of our 2030 strategic plan.” Source: ALTEN India, 6 October 2026, and Autocar Professional, 7 October 2026.
6 Oct
Hinduja Tech, the engineering and R&D subsidiary of Ashok Leyland, named Faiz Ahmad chief executive from 1 November. Kumar Prabhas retires from the role on 31 October after nine years, and the two work together through October. Ahmad has been in the Hinduja Group for nearly two decades and is currently chief operating officer and head of vehicle engineering and development. Source: Hinduja Tech, 6 October 2026, and The Hindu BusinessLine, 7 October 2026.
7 Oct
Sashikumar Sreedharan left Google Cloud India, where he had been managing director since July 2025, and is joining Sarvam AI as president and chief business officer, The Times of India reported, citing sources. Karan Bajwa, Google Cloud’s president for Asia Pacific, said on LinkedIn that Amit Kumar steps in as interim leader for India. Sreedharan was earlier Google Cloud’s Asia Pacific chief operating officer, a managing director at Microsoft India, and chief executive of Happiest Minds. Source: The Times of India and exchange4media, 7 October 2026, and CIOL, 9 October 2026.
7 Oct
SUN Mobility, the battery-swapping company, named two chief executives. Satish Sundaresan runs SUN Mobility, covering engineering, manufacturing and sourcing; he was most recently chief technology officer at Lumax Auto Technologies. Kamaldeep Singh, formerly chief executive of Big Bazaar and of DealShare, runs Indofast Energy, its 50:50 joint venture with Indian Oil Corporation. Source: PTI, 7 October 2026, and Saur Energy, 8 October 2026.
7 Oct
NielsenIQ announced Puneet Sharma as managing director for India, effective 30 September and based in Mumbai. He was most recently sales director at Kenvue, and has worked at Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Bacardi, the Times Group, Aircel and Carrier. Daniel Chorbadjian, NIQ’s regional president, said he “joins NIQ at a pivotal moment.” Source: NielsenIQ and Fortune India, 7 October 2026.
8 Oct
Cummins India appointed Gbile Adewunmi managing director and India regional leader from 1 November. He keeps his current job as vice-president for Power Systems Industrial Markets at Cummins Inc. and will continue to lead that business. Shveta Arya, previously managing director of Cummins India, was named Mahindra Group’s chief strategy officer in August, as recorded here that week. Source: Cummins, 8 October 2026.
8 Oct
Turtle Wax appointed Ashutosh Saxena managing director for India and ASEAN. He joined Castrol as a management trainee in 2008 and worked on building Castrol Auto Service, an effort to expand Castrol’s presence in the automotive aftermarket. Source: ETManufacturing, 8 October 2026, and exchange4media, 9 October 2026.
9 Oct
Pidilite Industries appointed Amit Agarwal chief financial officer designate, effective 9 October, according to a regulatory filing. He is to succeed Sandeep Batra as chief financial officer when Batra, an executive director, retires in 2027 at the end of his five-year term. Agarwal was executive director, finance and chief financial officer of Pfizer Limited from February 2024 until 8 October, after nearly 18 years in finance roles at Hindustan Unilever. Source: Adgully, 9 October 2026, and ETCFO, 12 October 2026. Pfizer exit: Pfizer Limited exchange filing, 27 July 2026.
9 Oct
Josy Paul, chairman of BBDO India, which he co-founded in 2008, became chairman and group chief creative officer of BBDO Group India, which now combines BBDO India, Ulka and Mudra. The group’s chief executive, Jitender Dabas, was appointed in February after Omnicom’s merger with IPG. Source: exchange4media and afaqs!, 9 October 2026.
Movements is a factual, dated record of leadership change in Indian business, published weekly. This edition covers the week of 5 October 2026, which closed on 11 October.