Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said that the government should not invest further in telecom company Vodafone Idea (Vi) to revive it. Instead, he suggested that a world-class telecom company should be encouraged to take over Vi. “The way to revive Vi is not for the government to infuse more funds (already Rs 36,500 crore) and make Vi into a government company,” he said in a post on X.
While sharing his views on X, Chidambaram supported Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia’s push to revive Vodafone Idea, stating that increased competition is the need of the hour in the telecom sector. “Duopoly is not good in any industry,” he wrote.
Foreign players should take over Vi to compete with Jio and Airtel
Chidambaram recalled a time when top global telecom giants like AT&T, BT, Verizon, Etisalat, and Hutchison had entered the Indian market. However, he noted that these companies eventually exited due to the regulatory challenges they faced in India. Through his tweet he hinted that India needs to fix its regulatory framework.
Centre’s stake in Vi rises to nearly 49 per cent
Vi, once a leading player in the Indian telecom industry, has been struggling financially for years. The government has already converted a large portion of the company’s dues into equity, making it a key shareholder. However, Vi still needs fresh capital and a solid business plan to survive in the intensely competitive telecom market dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
Earlier, in February 2023, the government converted Rs 16,133 crore of Vi’s interest liabilities—arising from deferred spectrum and AGR dues—into equity.
More recently, the Centre converted an additional Rs 36,950 crore of dues into equity, leading to the issuance of 3,695 crore new shares at Rs 10 each. As a result, the government’s ownership in the company surged to 48.99 per cent, though Vodafone Idea’s promoters continue to retain operational control.