No more lifeline

Govt should either restructure or shut down telecom PSUs

How long will the government continue to support Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, or MTNL? The state-owned telecommunications company will lose its service licence on April 6 but has reportedly been assured by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that this will not cause it to be shut down. It has been 20 years since MTNL was granted a licence for the Delhi circle. MTNL, though, argues that another date, January 2001, should have been considered as the beginning of its tenure. But there is no doubt that the real problem is that MTNL simply does not have the money for licence