New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS): Bharti Airtel said on Tuesday that its net profit in the first quarter of 2015-16 grew by 40.2 percent to Rs.1,554 crore as against Rs.1,108 crore in the same period of 2014-15.

"The year has begun on a healthy note, with underlying revenue growth accelerating to 12.7 percent in India. Our customer base has continued to steadily expand. Mobile minutes and data traffic have grown by 7.4 percent and 83.4 percent respectively," managing director and CEO, India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said in a statement here.

Overall customer base of the company stood at 331.9 million across 20 countries, up 10.7 percent year-on-year.

Mobile data traffic of the company stood at 119.8 billion megabytes in the quarter, a growth of 86.5 percent year-on-year.

The company has appointed Rajiv Mathrani as chief brand officer for its India operations. He will lead Airtel's brand positioning, strategic initiatives and associations, and will report to Srini Gopalan, director, consumer business, Bharti Airtel (India).

Mathrani takes over from Mohit Beotra, who has decided to move on from Airtel to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.