Pradip Baijal
Pradip Baijal is a much respected retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service. He is a 1966 batch officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He is part a long list of IAS officers who have spent time at Oxford University for specialised training[citation needed]. Business Standard, in an article in 2003 called him a storm-raiser. On one hand, he is seen as one of the most successful officers in the government, and has several accomplishments across multiple sectors, while on the other hand, he is seen as a controversial bureaucrat who took some tough decisions and also worked post-retirement in a strategic consulting firm that was owned by a corporate lobbyist (though not in the lobbying firm, itself).
In his distinguished career, Pradip Baijal held senior administrative positions in the Ministry of Finance and industries at state level but he first came into prominence as the disinvestment secretary in the BJP Govt on 1999 and was part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of various Govt companies like BP, VSNL, IPCL and Maruti. He received many accolades through his stint in the disinvestment ministry, and a reputation of 'getting things done'.
He was appointed chairman of TRAI in a critical phase in 2003 when Arun Shourie of the BJP was minister, and then for a brief time with Dayanidhi Maran. He retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2006; much before the current 2G spectrum sale which has been under controversy.
Education
He was trained as an engineer before he joined the Indian Administrative Service. Baijal earned his BE (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee. He took part in a one year visiting fellowship at Oxford University on the Privatisation of Public Enterprise.
Accomplishments
During his tenure, TRAI articulated and adopted allegedly pro-development and consumer-friendly regulatory practices and made important recommendations on the growth of telecom services in rural India to the Government of India. TRAI has also urged the industry to think of next generation telecom networks. Baijal, directly dealt with a variety of key issues impacting the telecom industry in India, including changes to the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) that punctured mobile phone bills.
In fact, it was he who is credited with suggesting a reduction in ADC, a fee that private operators pay BSNL for compensating its rural operations, and its eventual withdrawal by 2009. This was by no means a small decision given the clout and might of BSNL and the support of department of telecom to continue with the levy, which works out to not less than Rs 5,000 crore.
Another step of far-reaching implications was Baijal's continued thrust on unified licensing, under which an operator can offer telecom and broadcasting services on a single licence and next generation networks for Indian telecom sector that would bring down the network costs significantly. As a result of his incredible work in the sector, the sector grew remarkably - from adding 0.2 million subsribers a year, the sector was adding close to 20 million subscribers monthly by the time he retired. Shosteck, a research Group based in US wrote in 2004[1]: “This study analyzes the Indian mobile market to understand the lessons that it might offer the rest of the world. It concludes that India’s “ Unified License “ – with which any operator can offer any access technology, whether landline or wireless – has enabled for more robust competition than otherwise would be possible”.
To quote from a 2005 report titled “The Indian Telecom Industry” produced by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta[2], “Indian telecommunications today benefits from among the most enlightened regulation in the region, and arguably in the world. The sector, sometimes considered the ‘poster-boy for economic reforms’ has been among the chief beneficiaries of the post-1991 liberalization… Despite several hiccups along the way, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the independent regulator, has earned a reputation for transparency and competence”.
Controversies
His tenure as TRAI chairman coincided with multiple policy changes that are alleged to have directly benefited some telecom companies, including Reliance Telecom and Tata Teleservices.
Pradip Baijal was the TRAI Chairman when the technology neutral "Unified Access License" was implemented, a policy change which allowed fixed line operators who had paid much lower license fees to offer mobile phone services, at first in the limited WLL mode (Wireless in Local Loop) and later, following an out of court settlement between mobile operators and the BJP govt, full mobility.
The TRAI, headed by Pradip Baijal at the time also made a controversial recommendation to the Group of Ministers in 2003, that was used as a basis to give the 4th operator license to the same set of companies in areas where there was no fourth operator. Baijal recommended a charge of Rs.1658 crores as license fee without adjustments for inflation or market growth since 2001. Pradip Baijal was also part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of several Govt companies, along with Arun Shourie as Minister. Among the many transactions he worked on was the sale of Govt owned telecom company VSNL, that was sold to Tata Teleservices: one of the 150+ companies that formed the client base of Niira Radia, whose firm he later joined[3]. This raised a critical questions of conflict of interest.
His houses and offices were recently raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of their investigations into the Telecom Scam[4].
Post-Retirement
He recently co-founded a strategy consulting firm Noesis. Noesis was established to provide strategic advisory services based on a blend of experience, foresight, a deep understanding of the economic and business landscape, and the ability to take a holistic view.
External links
- ^ http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/DocumentsIMT2000/TechnicalArticles2008/IndiaPaper_FINAL.pdf
- ^ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22630772/The-Indian-Telecom-Industry
- ^ Did Pradip Baijal make a mistake in joining Niira Radia's firm? http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/7108777.cms
- ^ CBI conducts raids; swoops on DMK associates, Niira Radia & Pradip Baijal http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/CBI-conducts-raids-swoops-on-DMK-associates-Niira-Radia--Pradip-Baijal/articleshow/7108883.cms