oppn parties BSNL Must Be Converted To A Special Purpose Vehicle

Story Of The Day

Bankipur Falls: The Seat BJP Could Not Afford to Lose Has Fallen

August 10, 2026

People Are Talking About

People Are Talking About the Language of Gen Z

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court rules that functional disability should be the deciding factor in granting road accident damages and not any doctor-issued disability certificate
  • Supreme Court flagged the fact that nearly 56% of the vehicles plying in India were uninsured and asked the government to challan them
  • An Air India flight from Phuket to Delhi encountered severe turbulence and 17 passengers were admitted to hospital with injuries
  • Calcutta HC said that heavens won't fall if Vande Matram is made mandatory to sing in madrasas
  • Kolkata Municipal Corporation has sought government nod for increasing city's wards to 200+ to keep residents in each ward between 16000 to 18000
  • Government has said that partially filled online Census forms may be allowed
  • Government may allow fees on UPI payments above Rs 2000, except on transfer between two individuals
  • Brent crude falls below $80 per barrel
  • Government has increased the LIC offer for sale to Rs 31,400cr with an additional 4% on the block
  • Stock markets become nervous on Tuesday due to Gulf situation: Sensex slides 210 points and Nifty sheds 159 points ahead of RBI MPC meets today
  • Indian cricket team lands in Sri Lanka for a 2-Test series
  • A former French Navy pilot who had alleged that IAF had lost Rafales during Operation Sindoor has been held in France on spying charges
  • An ordinary zari worked living just 100km away from Kolkata was stunned to find Rs 100cr deposited in the bank account. The bank has frozen her account pending enquiry
  • Businessmen in Kolkata gets a Rs 5-crore extortion call, allegedly from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang
  • NTA floats tenders to secure offices and exam materials round-the-clock
Tarun Tejpal, former editor of Tehelka, was sentenced to 10 years in jail by Bombay HC for raping a colleague. This judgment overturns the acquittal by a Goa sessions court
oppn parties
BSNL Must Be Converted To A Special Purpose Vehicle

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-07-29 10:21:52

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The government has announced a financial package of Rs 1.64 lakh crore to revive BSNL. The package is designed to de-stress its balance sheet (the public sector telco has run up losses of Rs 30000cr in the last three years), provide it with spectrum and also has a cash component for funding capital expenditure. But the problem is to identify whether BSNL is competitive enough to survive in the cut-throat business of providing telephony and internet connections to customers. It has a miniscule percentage of customers (just over 3%) in the huge market. Its infrastructure is outdated - when private players are jumping to 5G, the government will provide 4G spectrum to BSNL now and 5G will be provided after two years. With this kind of support, is the government not guilty of throwing good money after bad in trying to revive it?

But when one takes into consideration the fact that telecommunication is of strategic importance and cannot be left to the private sector which is guided solely by the profit motive, the importance of BSNL cannot be discounted. Having said that, it still does not make sense for the government to hope for its revival as it has imposed several restrictions (like salary constraints which do not allow it to attract talent) and asked it to make do with outdated technology. As the government needs the BSNL to carry out projects of strategic importance like the BharatNet (to connect all panchayats through broadband connectivity) and taking telephony and internet to areas where private players do not, is it not time to convert it into a special purpose vehicle just to carry out such projects and relieve it of the burden of competing with private players when it is clearly not in a position to do so?

It is time the government defines the role it would like BSNL to play, provide it with full support and allow it to work with complete focus in those areas only. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Accountability Cannot Be a Precondition to Debate

Accountability Cannot Be a Precondition to Debate

 When the State Fears Its Own Youth

When the State Fears Its Own Youth

In Depth

The Taxman's Doppelganger: How India's ITR Filing Deadline Became a Phishing Season

The Taxman's Doppelganger: How India's ITR Filing Deadline Became a Phishing Season

Editor's Pick

Kangana Ranaut's War on 'Generation Gutter'

Kangana Ranaut's War on 'Generation Gutter'
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.