Business

IIE DIGITAL DESK : Tata Digital has chosen Sajith Sivanandan — a veteran of Google and JioHotstar — as its new chief executive officer, with the appointment taking effect on September 1. The hire marks the third leadership change at the Tata Group’s digital arm in under two years as the company seeks steadier hands to steer its ambitions in India’s crowded e-commerce and super-app market. 

Sivanandan arrives with a résumé that spans more than 15 years at Alphabet’s Google, where he led Google Pay in India and later across the Asia-Pacific region, and senior leadership roles at JioHotstar and Jio Mobile Digital Services. His experience in payments, streaming and large consumer internet products positions him to spearhead Tata Digital’s effort to integrate commerce, healthcare and grocery services under the Tata Neu umbrella. 

The appointment comes at a delicate time for Tata Digital. Founding CEO Pratik Pal, who launched Tata Neu, stepped down in February 2024, and Naveen Tahilyani resigned in May 2025 after a 15-month tenure, creating questions about continuity and strategy at the group’s online play. Tata Digital has been trying to translate a multibillion-dollar investment and the group’s vast ecosystem into a sustainable consumer franchise. Bringing in an executive with both product and payments pedigree signals a shift toward stronger operational execution.

Operationally, September 1 will be notable for another reason: Tata Digital will move its headquarters in Mumbai from Fort House to a more cost-efficient three-storey campus at One International Centre in Lower Parel, a relocation expected to cut monthly rental costs substantially. The timing of the leadership change alongside the office move underlines a broader effort to tighten costs while reorienting the business for growth. 

The leadership switch arrives as Tata Sons prepares a fresh capital infusion of around $400 million into Tata Digital, funding that is expected to come from dividend earnings of Tata Consultancy Services. The planned investment is meant to give the digital arm more runway to scale services such as BigBasket, Tata 1mg and Tata Cliq within the Tata Neu ecosystem. Despite roughly $2 billion already invested, Tata Digital has struggled to deliver on its early promise, making this phase critical for demonstrating traction. 

Industry watchers will be looking for how Sivanandan balances aggressive product bets with profitability pressures, whether he tightens integration across Tata’s businesses, and how quickly he can stabilize the leadership bench. For Tata Digital, the new CEO’s mandate is clear: convert the Tata Group’s large offline strengths and recent funding into a coherent digital product suite that can compete at scale.