Second guessing what?s going on at the top has always been an exercise with high risks and low returns. But this has never stopped the telecom sector?s warring camps in their battle for radio spectrum. Off the record, they have been quite happy dropping the name of the PMO to sell their versions of the story to mediapersons. But what does the PM really think? This was why Wednesday?s India Telecom Summit, at which the PM was slated to speak, was such a big draw. Sure enough, the venue at Vigyan Bhavan was packed to capacity. Alas, the PM resorted to the time-honoured device of a nuanced statement, one that could leave various aspects open to interpretation. The result? The tea session that followed saw even more intense debate: but no definite policy could be discerned that did not amount to stuffing words in the PM?s mouth in some way or another.
Info check
At a recent Ficci conference on supply chain management where Rajan Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel was to release a report, Eavesdropper expected infrastructure issues plaguing the retail sector to be the stuff of discussion along the sidelines. However, in a role reversal of sorts, it was Mittal who was seen querying journalists on what the latest was on the spectrum issue. It was only later, though, that they discovered that Bharti had written a letter to the government offering Rs 1,000 crore more for additional spectrum. Perhaps Mittal was running a check on whether the information had reached the media yet or not.