Pradip Baijal: A real cowboy, that's mr B

I love confrontation," says 60-year-old Pradip Baijal, with an almost Dirty Harry kind of gleam in his eye. Don't mess with me, says the look, an attitude that came to the fore during Baijal's 39-month stint as secretary of the Ministry of Disinvestment. Litigation, public protests by aggrieved employees of the companies that were being privatised, political opposition, inter-ministerial turf-related wrangles, the man has seen them all.

Being the stormy petrel of the Indian Administrative Service-he joined the Madhya Pradesh cadre in 1966-comes naturally to the mechanical engineer from Roorkee, one of India's finest engineering schools that was recently elevated to an Indian Institute of Technology. Baijal was in the Ministry of Power between 1994 and 1999, the period when the country experimented unsuccessfully with power reforms ranging from counter-guarantees for independent power producers to restructuring ailing state electricity boards.

That turbulent period should have squelched his ardour for strife, something that originates from his oft-articulated impatience with the illogical. And the movement of the wheels of power and governance aren't bound by the rules of logic, making Baijal, a very angry, and even more impatient bureaucrat.

That, and his relationship with Arun Shourie, the minister for disinvestment-the duo struck a great working equation-who was given additional charge of the it and telecommunications ministry in February this year probably makes Baijal the ideal TRAI chairman. In its six years of existence the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has had three chairmen, and each has been accused of colluding with the Department of Telecommunications and spiking the chances of private players or being more than willing to help the cause of private enterprise, even at the cost of customers or taking sides and furthering the interests of a particular company or simply not doing anything at all.

Baijal is no stranger to the business of telecommunications. He oversaw the disinvestment of international long-distance telephony major VSNL and prepared the groundwork for the privatisation of BSNL and MTNL-something that should happen sometime in the not too distant future if Shourie has his way. So, he doesn't mind the fact that he was given just around three weeks notice to take charge.

This writer met with Baijal in his new office in the middle of May, and he was quick to admit that telecommunications is "too complex a sector to understand easily". That complexity must be behind his uncharacteristically sympathetic view of the last man to occupy the post of Chairman, TRAI, former State Bank of India Chief M.S. Verma. The banker-turned-regulator was widely perceived to be passive and supportive of anything the Department of Telecommunications suggested. And he didn't present his paper on interconnect-rules governing the interconnection of competing networks-until the last few days of his tenure, leaving Baijal the legacy of implementing it.

Baijal has done just that and, for good measure, floated a consultation paper addressing what he considers to be the grey areas in the interconnect policy. The CPP (Calling Party Pays) regime is finally in place, making all incoming calls free. And he has proven a tough regulator, quick to respond to charges of partisanship and quicker to rein in telcos at the first whiff of non-compliance. It'll take a lot more than that for Baijal to facilitate "an explosion in the Indian telephony market bringing it at par with China on a per capita basis". He's willing to do whatever it takes.

-Suveen K. Sinha

Software Plus
The importance of Wipro's C-biz

Vineet Agarwal: The other face of the other Wipro

Azim Hasham Premji, the 56-year old chairman of the Rs 4,285-crore Wipro, is a dignified man with a shocking white mane who endures media attention unlike his counterparts who seem to revel in it. The surest way, however, to rile him is to ask him why Wipro-Wipro Technologies, Wipro Infotech, and Wipro Healthcare and Life Sciences account for 91 per cent of sales and 93 per cent of net profits-continues to remain in the consumer care and lighting businesses.

Premji's usual response is a laconic ''Why not?'' followed by a brief reference to the division's returns. His decision may have something to do with history-Wipro started life as a vegetable oil company and its it foray was bankrolled by the consumer care business-but he is right about the returns. Last year, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting's return on capital employed was 59 per cent, up from 51 per cent the year before. And its profit before interest and taxes was Rs 43.6 crore, a not unimpressive number.

It isn't that Wipro, which is growing its software business organically and through a spate of acquisitions, is doing nothing about this business. It recently acquired a glucose drink, Glucovita from HLL and the buzz in Bangalore (strongly denied by the company itself) is that herbal soap brand Chandrika is next. ''We are looking to acquire strong regional brands and leverage our marketing network to make them national players,'' says Vineet Agarwal, President, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting. Next up, adds Agarwal, is a likely extension into deodorants, face wash, and shampoo but the emphasis remains ''profitable growth and not just topline growth''. The chairman will like that.

-Venkatesha Babu

Singh Discovers BPR

Jaswant Singh: It's time for a BPR exercise

In these trying times, it seems somehow apt that the man in charge of the economy and business, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, is trying the shape his ministry into a lean, and, hopefully, mean organisation. The man he has identified for the task is trusted lieutenant Vijay Kelkar whose time these days is spent drafting a blueprint of roles and functions-no small feat with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Department of Company Affairs now falling under the purview of the ministry. With four joint secretaries moving out of the ministry's North Block offices rather prematurely one insider claims "effectiveness, not size is the minister's focus". Singh is also said to be keen to create a inter-ministerial team with representatives from the ministries of commerce, industry, and shipping, for "effective implementation". With all this activity and with both Finance Secretary S. Narayan and Revenue Secretary C.S. Rao due to retire at the end of May, North Block is abuzz with activity. That's just the way it should be.

-Debojyoti Chatterjee

Arun Shourie: No thanks

FDI cap in the telecom sector is a piece of regulation that seems to enthuse the government far more than industry itself. That's why the telecom industry isn't popping the bubbly over it and Telecom Minister Arun Shourie's proposal to hike foreign investment in telcos to 74 per cent. For one, most cellular firms already are at that level, thanks to the pyramid holding structure. Besides, there's little foreign interest in telecom. As always, India's late on the boat. But don't blame Shourie for that. He's just four months into the job.

-Suveen K. Sinha