News Snapshot:
India plans to turn its creaky telecom department into a company next month," Reuters wrote in a news article on 29 September 2000. “…but the road from state-owned monopoly to modern telecom firm looks long and winding". That month, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was incorporated and it inherited the business from the government’s department of telecom services. With 2.4 crore telephone connections, BSNL, overnight, became one of India’s largest companies—its annual turnover, back then, was assessed at ₹20,000 crore and it had a book value of assets worth ₹68,000 crore. The new company faced a roadblock right away. About...
