Bharti Airtel submitted a press release to the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and BSE Limited under Regulation 30 on March 12, 2026, regarding its Customer Day 2026 initiative. The telecommunications giant organized this comprehensive company-wide program deploying nearly twenty thousand employees across all organizational levels to engage directly with customers and gain firsthand insights into their experiences and challenges.

Regulatory Filing Details

The company filed the disclosure with both major stock exchanges, providing transparency about this significant organizational initiative. The filing was digitally signed by Rohit Krishan Puri, Company Secretary and Compliance Officer, ensuring proper regulatory compliance.

Comprehensive Employee Mobilization Strategy

The Customer Day 2026 initiative represented a massive organizational effort with employees from leadership teams to functional specialists stepping out of traditional office environments. The program included multiple engagement strategies to ensure thorough customer interaction and feedback collection across various touchpoints.

Leadership Vision and Customer Obsession Culture

Shashwat Sharma, Managing Director and CEO of Airtel India, emphasized the strategic importance of this initiative in reinforcing the company's customer-first philosophy. He stated that Customer Day serves as an important reminder of the organization's responsibility to listen deeply, challenge themselves, and act with urgency in addressing customer concerns.

The CEO highlighted that this initiative strengthens Airtel's commitment to solving pain points, simplifying customer experiences, and continuously raising service delivery standards. The program reinforces Airtel's belief that customer obsession should be embedded as a cultural element rather than merely a corporate slogan.

Innovation Framework and Service Improvements

The Customer Day initiative has been instrumental in driving customer-first innovations across Airtel's service portfolio. The direct feedback and insights gathered through such engagements have shaped the development of various solutions designed to address real customer needs and pain points.

Key Innovation Areas:

• Enhanced spam and fraud protection systems
• Simplified and intuitive digital journeys through the Airtel app
• Expanded access to new-age, AI-enabled tools and services
• Streamlined processes to remove customer friction points

Continuous Improvement Philosophy

Airtel's approach emphasizes that experience improvement is continuous rather than episodic. The company maintains that by listening closely to customers and acting decisively on their feedback, it can consistently simplify processes, remove friction, and design services that are reliable, intuitive, and responsive to customer needs. This systematic approach ensures that customer feedback directly influences service design and delivery improvements across all business segments.

Bharti Airtel has disclosed receiving a penalty notice from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for alleged violations of subscriber verification norms. The telecommunications major received the notice on March 11, 2026, imposing a penalty of Rs 2,02,000.

Penalty Details and Background

The penalty was imposed by the Department of Telecommunications, Karnataka LSA following a Customer Application Form (CAF) audit conducted for January 2026. The regulatory action stems from alleged violations of subscriber verification norms under the company's license agreement.

Regulatory Compliance Requirements

Under the terms of its license agreement, Bharti Airtel is required to ensure adequate verification of customers before enrolling them as subscribers and comply with instructions issued by DoT. The Department of Telecommunications conducts periodic Customer Application Form audits to confirm compliance with licensing terms and conditions.

The CAF audit for January 2026 revealed alleged violations of terms and conditions with respect to subscriber verification norms under the License Agreement. These verification requirements are critical components of telecommunications licensing regulations designed to ensure proper customer onboarding processes.

Company Response and Financial Impact

Bharti Airtel has decided not to contest the penalty and will proceed with payment of the imposed amount. The company stated that the maximum financial impact is limited to the extent of the penalty levied, which amounts to Rs 2,02,000.

Regulatory Filing and Disclosure

The disclosure was made under Regulation 30 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, on March 12, 2026. Company Secretary and Compliance Officer Rohit Krishan Puri signed the regulatory filing submitted to both NSE and BSE.

The filing included detailed annexure providing comprehensive information about the penalty notice, violation details, and the company's response. This disclosure ensures transparency with stakeholders regarding regulatory actions affecting the company.

Regulatory Framework

The penalty notice falls under the broader regulatory framework governing telecommunications operators in India. DoT's periodic audits are part of ongoing compliance monitoring to ensure telecom operators adhere to subscriber verification protocols and licensing conditions. These measures are designed to maintain the integrity of customer onboarding processes across the telecommunications sector.