Welcome, Mr Paswan

You are known as a leader of the masses-somebody who knows and

understands the issues of the common Indian. Also as someone

who believes in action more than words. While many felt that

an area such as communications was not your cup of tea, I feel

that you are the right man for the job. Good communications

infrastructure in the country can really turn the country around,

thereby, enhancing quality of life.

The end

result of any dream about telecom in India has to be the benefit

and upliftnent of the common man. You must have that dream if

you want to leave your mark. Else, you will get mired and be

rendered ineffective, like many of your predecessors. Such a

dream is not easy to get.

The first

thing you must embark on is to find out what communications

is all about. With so many technologies and their vendors throwing

all sorts of jargons, it is easy to get confused. Then technologies

change with such rapidity here. See how many things in the National

Telecom Policy 1994 are redundant today. Unless the man at the

helm has some idea, providing a direction for country''s communications

plans will be very difficult. And without a viable long-term

objective in place, every such policy will keep hitting rough

weather.

The next

important job you will have to get down to at the earliest is

get a feel of the expectations of various segments of the society.

This will have a positive impact on the investors as well as

users. FDI in telecom has to go up by all means. You must have

extensive meetings with various sections of the industry; this

is the category that has to play a very important role in building

communications infrastructure in the country. Corporate users

of communications services, especially the MNCs should see that

communications in India is reliable and viable. Meeting people

is a must-the entire cross section ranging from the common man

to the corporate user to the communications industry.

Once these

things are in place, you will have a vision and a dream. Obviously

you will have the bureaucracy and the rest of the Government

on your side-unless you want to get into the same situation

as your predecessor, Jagmohan. The tussle between him and the

Prime Minister, the in-fighting between the DoT and the TRAI,

the deadlock between the Government and the industry, all these

have hampered the prospects of telecom in India. Involving them

in the entire process is required, but remember that often the

interests of the masses are sacrificed to cater to the demands

of the powerful and smart bureaucracy. You must have your priorities

right and not yield to their pressure. Converting a monolith

like DoT into a more efficient, service oriented, and self motivated

corporate will be among your first challenges. And also the

measure of your success.

Good luck.