Telecom Crisis: Is India sabotaging its best bet at regaining growth momentum?

By Mihir Sharma India’s growth this century has been fueled by one sector above all: telecommunications. The connectivity revolution has powered India’s information technology behemoths and helped hundreds of millions of young Indians get onto the grid, giving them a chance to improve their prospects. If India is to become the sort of entrepreneurial superstar that its government hopes it will, then the telecom sector is obviously going to be central to that plan. So why does the Indian state seem determined to push telecom businesses into crushing debt and possible bankruptcy, instead of ensuring the sector remains healthy and competitive? This week, one of India’s three remaining large telecom companies, Bharti Airtel Ltd., postponed the announcement of its financial results for the last quarter. This isn’t good news, given that in the quarter ending in June 2019 it reported a loss for the first time ever. Bloomberg News’ average of analysts’ expectations from the quarter ending in September is that the company will lose Rs 1,400 crore, almost $200 million. The immediate reason for the delay is clear: a recent Supreme Court judgment that ordered Bharti Airtel and other legacy telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea Ltd., to pay billions… Read full this story

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