Indian economy is at an all-time low at the moment and the Covid pandemic has worsened the situation in the sub-continent. India has suffered more than any other country in this world. Unfortunately, this has affected the Telecom companies in India, as known to us that they were already in an alarming state since few years.
After globalization, Indian companies started depending on other countries, especially China. China also used this as an opportunity, and made goods at the lowest prices in the world. This has been happening for quite some time.
Consequently, the consumers, buyers and dealers got habituated to the Chinese supply and molded their operations in that way from the first. There was no disturbance at all in all the businesses as the entire operation ran in an organized way with the constant Chinese supply.
Suddenly after the lockdown, Prime Minister Modi gave a call to all the Indians for ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’, which actually sent shock waves to the Indian Telecom companies. These companies were puzzled and horrified by the call of the Prime Minister.
As they are facing huge losses because of the COVID effect and now they have to rely on Indian suppliers which will cost them more money to re-arrange everything.
As the saying goes ‘it is easier said than done’. The center gave a call on the greater good but the suffering of the companies was not taken into consideration. Of course, this serves no good to the center as well.
Modi, should have shown major concern to revive these companies, instead he just made a declaration on the media. He should have shown a way to rebuild their entire network like supply, distribution, manufacturing, assembling, marketing that is free of Chinese network. The worst part was that some ministries instructed the ban of the Chinese supply immediately.
For example, Airtel and Vodafone the biggest telecom networks in India are the customers of China’s Wai company. These two Telecom companies hold 55% stake in the Indian Telecom sector and Wai company’s supplies are much cheaper when compared to others. It should not be forgotten that the Wai company has a combined 40 percent stake in 4G network devices.
This sudden declaration and ban on Chinese goods have brought greater problems to these companies.
BSNL, a public sector undertaking, is also dependent on ZTE, a Chinese company. People feel that the telecom companies that were incurring losses already was due to the entry of Ambani’s Jio company. It is also said that the latest statement made by the Modi government surely was made to enhance the market of Ambani.
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