The making of the first Indian telecom policy

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it,” said the greatest sculptor of all times. This quote had a great influence on me. Belonging to the 1960 batch of the IAS, Gujarat cadre, I am known to be the first Telecommunications and IT Secretary between 1990 and 1996 at the most critical time. I was instrumental in initiating the policies for the telecom and software technology parks for India.

The policy was not done overnight. It had years of learning, perseverance, vision and a definite approach into its making. And when I say learning, I mean it! Right from the day one of me joining as a young IAS officer in Gujarat—which at that time was a newly formed independent state, separated from Maharashtra—everyday has taught me something to be a better administrator. As the learning curve began, I encountered several problems that needed solutions.

Making of a policy maker

You might wonder why there is a need for me to brag about my learning. Well, for being the enabler of the first telecom policy in 1994, you would need to know from where I drew inspiration and courage; how determined I was to empower liberalization in the telecom department of India; why I saw the need for a strong policy; and last of all why I thought it was a fundamental right of every Indian citizen to own a telephone.

There are several ways in which I drew my inspiration and learning that enabled me to turn from a novice in any administrative department to a successful bureaucrat. Today, I would like to share four or five of those learning that I emulated and that somehow had a direct correlation with administration and policy making.

First of all, let me reveal a fact that the life of an IAS officer is that of a neoteny. What neoteny means is the retention, by adults in a species, of traits previously seen only in juveniles. I am referring to this term here because, as administrative officers we serve a department without any background or academic knowledge suitable for that department. It is a process of continuous learning for us.

As a post-graduate in Chemistry, I have handled the departments of telecom, finance, vigilance, and so on. So, for us, just like how adults retain juvenile characteristics in neoteny, we retain a lot of those learning throughout our service period and also ensure that we implement those at the most appropriate time.

The questionnaire approach

Reminiscing the past, at my first posting in Gujarat, I learned quite a few effective practical, application-based models from the Gujaratis. I was rather struck by their risk-taking attitude and the business acumen that they possessed. The art of doing business seems to lie in their DNA! While working with the Gujaratis, I realized that they were simply not interested in beating around the bush for any problem. They wanted practical solutions to problems and also respected officers who were able to deliver actionable results.

That is where I learnt the questionnaire approach to problem solving in studying the pulse of the situation and delivering results. To address a problem, I had sent out a questionnaire with relevant queries seeking opinions. The answers to the queries were carefully analyzed to derive at a pragmatic solution.

This model worked as the best strategy while making the telecom policy. In 1993, I sought opinions from all the stakeholders, analyzed and brought in the first effective draft that stressed upon the need for the inclusion of private players in the Indian telecom industry.

Learning is doing

Robert Strange McNamara, the American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defence, serving from 1961 to 1968, under Presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson was another great inspiration to me. After briefly serving as Ford's President, McNamara accepted the appointment as US Secretary of Defence.

When he was offered the Defence Secretary post, McNamara told Kennedy that he didn't know anything about the functioning of a government, to which Kennedy replied: “We can learn our jobs together. I don’t know how to be president either.”

This statement has so many implications. It means that a person is willing to learn so much on his job, be it President of a country or a menial worker. The willingness to learn is what matters here!

McNamara played a major role in escalating the United States’ involvement in wars and was also responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.

He epitomized the confidence of the Americans. He was specially recognized as an American technocrat free of ideological blinders, focusing on the facts and deducing the truth from statistics and his strong sense of public service made me imbibe those policy making strategies and public service motto.

Michelangelo's quote

Let me now tell you why Michelangelo’s quote was mentioned at the start of this piece. Regarded as history’s greatest sculptor, to Michelangelo, every block of stone had a statue inside it and he says it is the task of the sculptor to discover the statue in it.

‘I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free’... This quote keeps reverberating in my mind all the time. I started looking for solutions within the problem just like Michelangelo. Until I saw a solution to the problem, I could never settle down, like how Michelangelo saw a statue made from a marble piece.

Drafting the policy

Imbibing the learning from all these personalities gave me the courage to initiate the draft for the first Telecom Policy in 1993. Not trusting anybody, I drafted it myself. Late in 1993, as DoT secretary, I took the bold decision to announce that the Government of India would provide phones to everyone on demand.

This announcement did face a lot of opposition, but I was confident that bringing in private operators was the only solution to this problem. I insisted on breaking the monopoly of the state-run telecom operators. You would not believe that the wait period to get a telecom connection was two years in 1990s. I insisted that it be reduced to two days and ensured that it was made possible.

Fortunately, the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh supported the policy. A five-page report was compiled and submitted against the views in the draft policy I made. In defense, in turn, I wrote an 11-page report substantiating with facts that proved the need for liberalization of the sector and why it was important to clear the hurdles that were in the way of making of the policy.

Accepting and validating most of my recommendations, in mid-1994, the National Telecom Policy was approved by the Government of India. It was in fact a matter of surprise to many when I brought the policy into effect with just one year of working on the draft. The national telecom policy as a matter of fact has set the tone for today’s Indian telecommunications industry for the times much ahead.

The work of Sam Pitroda as a technology advisor to the Prime Minister and as head of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) was also a major support in the making of the policy.

For boosting the software industry’s growth and for setting up the Software Technology Park, I took some initiatives that were unheard of in the government circles. One was the government-industry interaction. I invited all the IT company heads and garnered their inputs for better policy making (remember the questionnaire approach). This made the industry confident that the government support would actually make matters better for them.

Also, I could envision that the telecom industry was benign and had a large scope for foreign investors. I perceived the need for foreign direct investments (FDI) and knew it was important for India to open the doors to companies like IBM and Motorola, by creating the environment for big-ticket investments.

I also knew that software alone cannot build India’s telecom industry.  The Electronics Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) scheme was launched with an aim to promote electronics hardware in the country.

In conclusion, I would like to quote what Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita: “nimitta-mātraḿbhavasavya-sācin,” meaning we are all instruments of a greater force. As an instrument of God, I was there at the right time to do the right thing in service to the society.

- N. Vittal

-- The author is former-Central Vigilance Commissioner and Secretary, Department of Telecommunications.