Telecom PSU's on a Drip

In our October 2012 issue, we carried the cover story on the state of our state-run telecom PSUs (Telecom PSUs on a Drip). The story talked about the current situation of the PSUS like BSNL, MTNL, and ITI; compared it with their initial glorious days; and how, despite lots of support from the government, these PSUs have lost their plot and at present, they are at the verge of extinction.

Taking revenue and net profit as the basis of this forecast, we said that these PSUs are on a drip and unless they take appropriate actions, and that is now, it would be a sorry affair. These PSUs, for the past few years, have been losing money, running on losses, and are almost unable to compete with their private counterparts, let alone fighting with them, in the world's fastest growing telecom market.

In the story, we deliberately put the blame on the PSUs for their dilapidated condition. However those blames were neither baseless nor untrue. What we did was that we did not buy the traditional excuses of these PSUs that government is more to be blamed for their ever deteriorating conditions. There is no doubt that government is to be blamed to an extent but after all the ownership lies on the people who are at the helm of the affairs at these PSUs. What we believe is the people who are at charge of this PSUs need to do whatever it takes to run their companies and take it to newer heights. If it warrants a fight with the government or be with its policies, they need to do that. These PSUs cannot forget besides that they are supposed to be some profit making companies, they have a larger objective to fulfill-to serve the nation and be self sufficient. Around 4 lakh employees and 100 mn customers are being served by these PSUs.

We knowingly kept the government perspective out of the story and once the article was carried, we were bombarded with letters and mails from people who are, in some way or other, associated with these PSUs. Hundreds of mails from past and current employees of BSNL reached us within weeks and our online representation of the story also witnessed numerous comments and feedback. And most of the mails pointed out how government intervention or otherwise has been killing the PSUs, who once upon a time were hugely profitable organizations.

They used to hire the most skilled persons from the industry, deploy the best technologies, and offer a number of affordable services. These mails also showed that there are deep rooted concern among the current employees about the well-being of their companies and true to our story, they have a zeal to live and ready to take that extra miles to bring back the lost glory.

Only concern which the management and the people at the helm of affairs need to acknowledge and take righteous decisions is that they are still capable of achieving what they have achieved in the past.

We bring you snapshots of some of the many letters that we got in response to the story 'Telecom PSUs on a Drip'. On request, we are keeping the identities of the senders of these mails a secret.