Pradip Baijal: Difference between revisions
Off2riorob (talk | contribs) remove redlink -picture was a copy vo - deleted |
Rahuljain78 (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| Line 21: | Line 21: | ||
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 managed to extract a Rs 1000 crore control premium for the government as part of the Maruti sale, which is seen as a success.<ref>http://www.financialexpress.com/news/maruti-ipo-may-garner-rs-700-cr/70412/</ref> 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]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} He retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2006.<ref>http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/mar/21baijal.htm</ref> |
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 managed to extract a Rs 1000 crore control premium for the government as part of the Maruti sale, which is seen as a success.<ref>http://www.financialexpress.com/news/maruti-ipo-may-garner-rs-700-cr/70412/</ref> 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]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}} He retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2006.<ref>http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/mar/21baijal.htm</ref> |
||
[[Pradip Baijal]]<ref>http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html</ref> is the chairman of Noesis Strategic Consulting Company and is doing advisory work for Indian, MNC clients, foreign government / regulators, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), World Bank etc. in power, telecom, broadcasting policy and regulation, steel and mineral sectors, India entry strategies, public private infrastructure projects etc. |
|||
In 2010, his houses and offices were raided by the [[Central Bureau of Investigation]] as part of their investigation into the telecom scam involving lobbyist [[Niira Radia]].<ref>http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/123346/2G%20Scam/2g-probe-cbi-tightens-noose-around-raja-radia-baijal.html</ref> |
|||
== Education == |
== Education == |
||
| Line 39: | Line 39: | ||
Baijal received several acknowledgements for his role as TRAI Chairman. To quote from a 2005 report titled “The Indian Telecom Industry” produced by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, “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”<ref>http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22630772/The-Indian-Telecom-Industry</ref> |
Baijal received several acknowledgements for his role as TRAI Chairman. To quote from a 2005 report titled “The Indian Telecom Industry” produced by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, “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”<ref>http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22630772/The-Indian-Telecom-Industry</ref> |
||
Baijal has trained telecom regulators on behalf of the World Bank (Infodev) in Africa. He similarly works for ITU in Southeast Asia and has also undertaken restructuring of telecom regulation in Lao, Myanmar, and Oman, and has lectured ministers and regulators in Southeast Asia on reforms and regulation. He had also taken training classes on power regulation in 1999, in Vietnam. He is on the boards of Nestle, GVK, and Patni Computers, and advisory boards of the India Oil Corporation, Infrastructure Development Finance Company. For a few months in 2009, he was the chairman of an advisory committee to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board in India. As Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), from 2003 to 2006 he changed cost plus regulation to competition regulation in India leading to an unparalleled growth in the sector. <ref> http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html</ref> [[2G spectrum ]].<ref>http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html</ref><ref>http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html</ref> |
|||
== Controversies == |
|||
His tenure as TRAI chairman coincided with policy recommendations that are alleged to have 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 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 change in policy took place after several rounds of consultation with the industry participants but was regarded controversial because it allowed companies like Tata and Reliance who had paid much lower license fees for limited mobility to provide full mobility competing with players who had paid much higher fees for the same privilege. The TRAI at the time also made a recommendation to the Group of Ministers in 2003, where he recommended a fixed charge of Rs.1658 crores as license fee for UAS (Unified Access License) without adjustments for inflation or market growth since 2001.<ref>Scam Notes http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/24765/Scam+tones.html?complete=1</ref> In 2010 Baijal's house and office were raided by the [[Central Bureau of Investigation]] as part of their investigations into the [[2G spectrum scam]].<ref>CBI conducts raids; http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/CBI-conducts-raids-swoops-on-DMK-associates-Niira-Radia--Pradip-Baijal/articleshow/7108883.cms</ref><ref>http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/did-pradip-baijal-make-a-mistake-in-joining-niira-radias-firm/articleshow/7108777.cms</ref> |
|||
== Post-Retirement == |
== Post-Retirement == |
||
Revision as of 05:55, 3 February 2011
 |
 | This article possibly contains original research. (January 2011) |
Pradip Baijal | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence(s) | Noida, India |
| Alma mater | Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee |
As of 3 January, 2010 | |
Pradip Baijal is an officer of the Indian Administrative Service who retired as chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Baijal has been a formidable bureaucrat during his service years, and Business Standard, in an article in 2003 called him a "storm-raiser". [citation needed]
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 managed to extract a Rs 1000 crore control premium for the government as part of the Maruti sale, which is seen as a success.[1] 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.[citation needed] He retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2006.[2]
Pradip Baijal[3] is the chairman of Noesis Strategic Consulting Company and is doing advisory work for Indian, MNC clients, foreign government / regulators, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), World Bank etc. in power, telecom, broadcasting policy and regulation, steel and mineral sectors, India entry strategies, public private infrastructure projects etc.
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.
Career
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (January 2011) |
Pradip Baijal is a 1966 batch IAS officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He 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 government companies like BP, VSNL, IPCL and Maruti.
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.
Accomplishments
He is credited[4] with suggesting a reduction in ADC, a fee that private operators pay BSNL for compensating its rural operations, and its eventual withdrawal by 2009.
Baijal also pushed for 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 work, the sector grew remarkably - from adding 0.2 million subsribers a year, the sector had added close to 20 million subscribers monthly by the time he retired. Shosteck, a research Group based in US wrote: “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”.[5]
Baijal received several acknowledgements for his role as TRAI Chairman. To quote from a 2005 report titled “The Indian Telecom Industry” produced by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, “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”[6]
Baijal has trained telecom regulators on behalf of the World Bank (Infodev) in Africa. He similarly works for ITU in Southeast Asia and has also undertaken restructuring of telecom regulation in Lao, Myanmar, and Oman, and has lectured ministers and regulators in Southeast Asia on reforms and regulation. He had also taken training classes on power regulation in 1999, in Vietnam. He is on the boards of Nestle, GVK, and Patni Computers, and advisory boards of the India Oil Corporation, Infrastructure Development Finance Company. For a few months in 2009, he was the chairman of an advisory committee to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board in India. As Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), from 2003 to 2006 he changed cost plus regulation to competition regulation in India leading to an unparalleled growth in the sector. [7] 2G spectrum .[8][9]
Post-Retirement
Baijal spent a year after retirement writing the book "Disinvestment in India- I Lose and you Gain", published by Pearsons[10][11] He also co-founded a strategy consulting firm Noesis in partnership with Niira Radia. He also serves on the boards of GVK, Nestle India and Patni Computers. He works as an independent consultant and advisor to several countries including Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.
References
- ^ http://www.financialexpress.com/news/maruti-ipo-may-garner-rs-700-cr/70412/
- ^ http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/mar/21baijal.htm
- ^ http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html
- ^ http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k6/mar/mar273.htm
- ^ http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/DocumentsIMT2000/TechnicalArticles2008/IndiaPaper_FINAL.pdf
- ^ http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22630772/The-Indian-Telecom-Industry
- ^ http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html
- ^ http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html
- ^ http://pradipbaijal.com/profile.html
- ^ http://pradipbaijal.com/disinvestment_book.html
- ^ http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/Books-and-Guides/Man-With-A-Mission.html