Shivam Puri has been appointed chief executive officer of the One India Business of Cipla, effective 1 July 2026. The appointment hands the pharmaceutical group's unified India mandate to the executive who has run its consumer healthcare arm since 2019, and marks a significant step in Cipla's consolidation of its home market activities under a single leadership structure.
Puri takes on the role while serving as managing director and chief executive officer of Cipla Health, the wholly owned subsidiary that houses the group's consumer wellness brands. Under his leadership since 2019, Cipla Health expanded rapidly across major consumer categories including smoking cessation, pain care, cough and cold, skin care, hair care and nutrition, building distribution depth in some of India's most competitive shelf space.
He brings more than 23 years of leadership experience spanning the fast moving consumer goods and healthcare sectors. Before Cipla Health, Puri held business growth, brand development and commercial strategy roles at Hindustan Unilever, Jubilant FoodWorks and ITC, an apprenticeship in consumer markets that shaped the commercial playbook he later applied to the healthcare aisle.
The One India construct brings together Cipla's branded prescription, trade generics and consumer health businesses in its home market. Appointing a single chief executive for the combined business signals that Cipla views its India operations as one competitive front rather than three adjacent ones, with portfolio decisions, channel strategy and brand investment increasingly coordinated across prescription and consumer boundaries.
The selection of a consumer trained leader for the unified mandate is itself a statement. India's pharmaceutical market has been shifting toward branded, chronic and consumer adjacent categories, where marketing capability and channel execution matter as much as portfolio breadth. Puri's record of category building at Cipla Health suggests the group intends to run its India business with a sharper consumer edge, applying brand disciplines from fast moving consumer goods to a market traditionally led by medical representatives and trade relationships.
For Cipla, founded in Mumbai in 1935 and one of India's largest pharmaceutical companies, the home market remains the anchor of the portfolio alongside its international operations. A unified India business under proven internal leadership gives the group both continuity and a clear owner for its most important geography.
The appointment took effect on 1 July 2026.
