Purwar to be CMD of MTNL

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) director finance, P K Purwar will most likely be the next Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) for its organisation. Currently, AK Garg is CMD of MTNL.

On November 28, 2013, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has recommended Purwar for the post of CMD of MTNL. PSEB had earlier interviewed six persons for the same purpose.

The state-owned telecom firm MTNL, which provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai circles , was facing huge competition from private players. Also rising wage costs have impacted MTNL in a major way due to which it has been losing revenues and market share on a constant basis.

For the fiscal year 2011-12, the PSU operator posted a net loss of `4,000 crore on a revenue of `3,595 crore. Hence, taking account of the situation, the PSU is taking steps for its survival in the telecom industry. Some of the measures include reducing its employee strength of 45,000 (as on December 31, 2011) to 15,000 through a voluntary retirement (VRS) scheme.