Apple appoints former Hotstar executive Ipsita Dasgupta as country head

Apple has appointed Ipsita Dasgupta, former president of strategy and new ventures at Hotstar, as the country manager of India and heading the company’s streaming services in the country. 

Following the appointment, Dasgupta would be leading Apple’s streaming services such as Apple TV Plus, App Store, Apple Music, Apple movies, and iCloud in India.

The development comes at a time when Apple is looking to expand its streaming services in India and is competing to capture the growing market. While the company had launched streaming television service ‘Apple TV Plus’ in India a few months back for a subscription of Rs 99 per month, it is also looking to acquire licenses for Indian content. 

Dasgupta has taken over the position of Khushboo Ponwar who had earlier led Apple’s Indian business for 3 years. In July 2019, Ponwar moved on as the head of the business development for the company in India, the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. In 3 years as the country manager of India, Ponwar had launched Apple’s content and service business in India. 

Before joining Apple India, Dasgupta was leading Hoststar International and she was the company’s president strategy & new ventures for almost 4 years. Having over 23 years of working experience, Dasgupta has also served IBM as an associate partner for 8 years and GE as a chief commercial officer for over 6 years.

Meanwhile, Apple is planning to shift some of its production from China to India which is expected to boost Indian exports by around $40 billion. 

As reported by Fintrackr earlier, Apple India’s total revenue reduced by 19% to Rs 10,538.2 crore in FY19 from Rs 13,048.7 crore in the previous fiscal. While the company’s total expenditure dropped 13.5% to Rs 10,152.5 crore in FY 19 from Rs 11,740.7 crore, its profit also took a hit of about 70.7%. Apple India’s profit stood at Rs 262.27 crore in FY19 as compared to Rs 896.3 crores in FY18.