Dreaming Big: My Journey to Connect India by Sam Pitroda & David Chanoff

Author:Sam Pitroda & David Chanoff [Pitroda, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789352140053
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2015-10-18T18:30:00+00:00

10

Telecom Commission

Telecom was the only Mission where I truly considered myself an expert. But the telecom sector was experiencing a roadblock despite C-DOT’s success. The telecommunications department was the customer for telephone equipment, but they had a long history of buying foreign products, which meant they were enmeshed in a web of personal contacts and monetary relationships with overseas equipment-makers. As a result, they had embarked on a series of manoeuvres that were disrupting the broad-scale manufacturing, acquisition and installation of the Indian-made C-DOT products. They were delaying testing, demanding the addition of unnecessary features and otherwise doing their best to create problems. This had been a challenge with many other ministries including defence. Indigenous development was paid lip service while foreign products were preferred and purchased regularly to favour import lobbies and vested interests. Government policies were designed to encourage indigenous development but not indigenous production or purchase.

When I was unable to resolve these issues with the ministries, I went to Rajiv Gandhi with a proposal to set up a separate Telecom Commission. The commission, as I envisioned it, would include the telecommunications ministry, the finance ministry, the Planning Commission, the Cabinet Secretariat and the representatives from other relevant ministries. High-level decisions regarding telephone equipment, manufacturing and service would be made by the commission, then implemented by the telecommunications department. In this way we could carve a path through these roadblocks.

The prime minister agreed, and we organized a major national conference to help develop consensus. Over 500 people participated in the deliberations, including the prime minister, and various ministers, officers, industry leaders, labour leaders, and others. Then we started preparing the necessary documents. But as this moved forward the ministry went into defensive mode. They delayed processes. They sent the papers back for revision repeatedly. Then they sent back something different that they had purportedly drafted themselves. It was one delaying tactic after another. This went on for seven or eight months until it was crystal clear that they simply were not going to set up the Telecom Commission, whatever the prime minister’s office desires.

Finally, I told Rajiv that it was pretty certain that the ministry would not allow us to form a new Telecom Commission. ‘What’s the solution then?’ he asked.

The answer to this conundrum was that I would take on the role of the department’s chief executive officer. It seemed to be the only way to move forward. Taking on that job would be a stretch. I was still adviser to C-DOT, even though I had stepped away from any involvement in the operations. I was also, of course, adviser to the prime minister on the Technology Missions. But here too I felt that the projects were well-established enough, so I could move on. As I told Rajiv, I was prepared to take on the secretary’s job for two or three years. I could institute new policies, programmes and procedures, train people, and develop an executive management team to move forward.

But when the matter went to the

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