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. 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 much debate of late.

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.

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. 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.

Controversies after the tough decisions are expected. The US Regulator in Indiantelevision.com dated 29th September, 2005 said commenting on the work done by the TRAI: “When I look at all the steps that have been taken to encourage investment and innovation, if you look at where India is compared to other countries, it is one of the shining stars. ----. And a lot of that is owed to the head of regulator. I think he has taken a bit of stick in India, but that is normal because most of the time when you are a regulator you’re thinking about where you want your country to be in five or ten years while everyone else is thinking about today.”

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

• Storm Raiser
• Interview
• Retirement
• Dilemma
• SPEECH
• Regulation