The company's former CEO, Deepak Mehrotra, had quit the firm in October last year, citing personal reasons, and Mr Sharma was managing affairs in the interim.
Earlier this month, reports of Mr Taneja quitting Samsung had surfaced, but the company had declined to comment saying it “does not comment on rumour or speculation”.
According to IDC, smartphone sales in the country grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by a strong uptake of affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn.
Previously, Mr Taneja has also served as chief marketing officer for Nokia India and as vice president (sales and marketing) for the beverages and foods business at Hindustan Lever.
Similar to global trends, Samsung is the market leader in smartphone category in India too, a segment that grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013.
While Samsung led the category (38 per cent), Micromax had 16 per cent, Karbonn (10 per cent), Sony (5 per cent) and Lava (4.7 per cent) in the fourth quarter of 2013.
In the overall mobile phone segment too, it was the number one player with a 19 per cent share in Q4 2013, according to research firm IDC.
