Virat Bhatia serves as the Managing Director at Apple India. He spearheads strategy and policy in India, and is responsible for supporting Apple’s investments, strategy and policy engagement across all of its businesses in India and South Asia since 2018. These include Manufacturing, Exports, Retail, Services, Online Content, E-Commerce,and Digital Payments.
Always one to foster collaboration, innovation and support for young talent, Virat’s career in the ICT sector spans over 30 years - across multiple functions. These include general management, strategy, operations, communications and policy. Uniquely, he has led both the Services and Manufacturing side of businesses in Fortune 500 companies.
Prior to Apple, he served in multiple, senior positions at AT&T, including as the Chairman of AT&T in India and later, as AT&T’s Regional President for South Asia. In that role, he was amongst the first private sector executives who helped plan and build India’s cellular mobile networks beginning 1995. Before this, he was part of the team that was responsible for Coca Cola’s return to India in the mid-90s.
In 2026, the Government of India nominated him to the Department of Commerce’s Board of Trade. In 2025, he was invited to present on supply chains at the Fifth National Conference of Chief Secretaries chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
Virat currently serves on CII’s National Council and chairs the CII National Task Force on FDI. He also serves on the India Executive Leadership Board of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). As part of India’s G20 Presidency, he co-chaired the Business 20 (B20) Task Force on Global Value Chains (GVCs) in 2023.
An alumnus of Delhi University and John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, he has completed Advance Management Programmes at Kellogg school of Management and The Wharton School.
