Telecom entities Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have announced their leadership team in the run-up to the merger. Last March, both telcos decided to merge themselves after their existence was threatened by the newcomer Reliance Jio. The new team includes Balesh Sharma (as CEO), Akshaya Moondra (as CFO), and Ambrish Jain (as COO), and a host of other executive and non-executive appointments. Until the new entity gets necessary approvals, the existing managements of the telcos continue to run the show. It's expected that the merger will be completed by May this year - nearly 14 months after the first announcement. In India, the list of approvals required for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the telecom sector is comprehensive. In the case of Idea-Vodafone, most of them have already been taken, including approvals from SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India), CCI (Competition Commission of India), shareholders and NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal). It still needs clearances from DIPP (for foreign direct investment clearance) and DoT (department of telecom). The officials in the Idea and Vodafone were expecting the deal to materialize in the last quarter of 2017-18. They now hope to conclude it in the first quarter of 2018-19.