The
Government had set up a Committee under Sam Pitroda to review the functioning
of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The
important recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee were as follows:
·
Focus
on selection of the best professionals from the market at market rates.
·
Appoint
an eminent person from the private sector as the Chairman.
·
Separate
the post of the Managing Director/ CEO (from CMD).
·
Change
the Board composition to seven directors {one internal (MD/CEO), one
non-executive chairman, two government nominee and three external directors}.
·
Provide
three year contracts with specific targets for all key management team members.
·
Establish
four independent business units for Fixed access, Mobility, Enterprise and New
businesses.
·
Complete
ITS (Indian Telecom Service) absorption process.
·
Induct
significant young talent in Technology, IT, marketing, sales, etc.
·
Retire or transfer around 100K employees through
processes like VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme).
·
Change
procurement processes and procedures substantially using tools such as
e-Procurement, vendor rating, rate running contracts, schedules, etc.
·
Disinvest
30% through Indian strategic investor and at Initial Public Offering (IPO) to
return 10% to the government and use 20% for employee VRS, expansion and
operation.
·
Provide
30 million new high speed broadband connections in the next three years.
·
Unbundle
local loop for public and private companies.
·
Proactively
offer sharing of active and passive infrastructure to other operators.
·
Enhance
rural communication facilities by connecting 250,000 panchayats.
·
Create
a separate subsidiary company for tower related infrastructure.
·
Create
a separate subsidiary to hold land bank and other real estate assets.
·
Establish
a BSNL venture fund to invest and/ or acquire small appropriate technology
companies.
Telecom Commission deliberated on the
recommendations of the Sam Pitroda Committee on improving the performance of
the BSNL in its meeting held on 7.7.2010. The Telecom Commission decided to
constitute ‘Internal Committee’ under the Chairmanship of Member (Services),
Department of Telecommunications to give its recommendations on the report.
Accordingly on 19.08.2010, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Member
(Services) was constituted.
The internal committee submitted its report
on 29.10.2010, which was discussed again in Telecom Commission in its meeting,
held on 30.11.2010. Telecom Commission has decided the following in the matter:
(i)
Taking
30-50 professional from market at market rates changing Board Constitution or
separating Chairman and MD posts may not be feasible in only one Public Sector
Undertaking (PSU) as it may trigger protest from BSNL and demand for similar
treatment by other PSUs.
(ii)
This
is not the opportune time for listing & disinvestment of BSNL, as company is
on downward performance path & disinvestment may not realize true value of
the company. In absence of listing,
option of giving stocks as incentive, to key management is not available for
the present.
(iii)
VRS
across the board may not be required; BSNL could examine option of VRS for
select categories, examining financial burden and cost/benefit of the company.
(iv)
On
adopting Managed capacity or managed services model - Internal Committee view
that the Board of BSNL may take a view is endorsed.
(v)
Unbundling
of the local loop is a commercial decision, which shall be decided by BSNL
Board after critically examining the issue.
(vi)
All
other issues are operational and commercial issues of BNSL for which the Board
is competent to take decisions.
The
Commission also observed that some of the above issues including items (ii),
(iii) and (v) could be revisited if the need arose in the context of any major
policy decisions involving restructuring and repositioning of BSNL.
This information was
given by Shri Milind Deora, Minister of State for C&IT in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
******
MV/RK