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Pradip Baijal is a controversial officer of the Indian Administrative Service who retired as chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He is a 1966 batch officer from the Madhya Pradesh cadre. He is part a long list of IAS officers who have spent time at Oxford University for specialised training. With a well deserved reputation of being a go-getter, Business Standard, in an article in 2003 called him a "storm-raiser". On one hand, he is seen as one of the most successful officers in the previous government, with several accomplishments across multiple sectors. However on the other hand, he has recently come under a cloud of controversy because of his links to corporate lobbyists like Niira Radia, the kingpin of the 2G spectrum scam.

Pradip Baijal held senior administrative positions in the Ministry of Finance and industries at state level but he first came into prominence as the disinvestment secretary in the BJP Govt on 1999 and was part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of various Govt companies like BP, VSNL, IPCL and Maruti. He was appointed chairman of TRAI in a critical phase in 2003 when Arun Shourie of the BJP was minister, and then for a brief time with Dayanidhi Maran. He retired as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in March 2006. Post retirement he took up an assignment with controversial corporate lobbyist Niira Radia which raised critical questions of conflict of interest.

Education

He was trained as an engineer before he joined the Indian Administrative Service. Baijal earned his BE (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee. He took part in a one year visiting fellowship at Oxford University on the Privatisation of Public Enterprise.

Career

Pradip Baijal held senior administrative positions in the Ministry of Finance and industries at state level but he first came into prominence as the disinvestment secretary in the BJP Govt on 1999 and was part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of various government companies like BP, VSNL, IPCL and Maruti.

During his tenure, TRAI articulated and adopted allegedly pro-development and consumer-friendly regulatory practices and made important recommendations on the growth of telecom services in rural India to the Government of India. TRAI has also urged the industry to think of next generation telecom networks. Baijal, directly dealt with a variety of key issues impacting the telecom industry in India, including changes to the Access Deficit Charge (ADC) that punctured mobile phone bills.

Accomplishments

He is credited with suggesting a reduction in ADC, a fee that private operators pay BSNL for compensating its rural operations, and its eventual withdrawal by 2009.

Baijal also pushed for unified licensing, under which an operator can offer telecom and broadcasting services on a single licence and next generation networks for Indian telecom sector that would bring down the network costs significantly. As a result of his work, the sector grew remarkably - from adding 0.2 million subsribers a year, the sector had added close to 20 million subscribers monthly by the time he retired. Shosteck, a research Group based in US wrote: “This study analyzes the Indian mobile market to understand the lessons that it might offer the rest of the world. It concludes that India’s “Unified License“ – with which any operator can offer any access technology, whether landline or wireless – has enabled for more robust competition than otherwise would be possible”.

Baijal received several acknowledgements for his role as TRAI Chairman. To quote from a 2005 report titled “The Indian Telecom Industry” produced by Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, “Indian telecommunications today benefits from among the most enlightened regulation in the region, and arguably in the world. The sector, sometimes considered the ‘poster-boy for economic reforms’ has been among the chief beneficiaries of the post-1991 liberalization… Despite several hiccups along the way, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the independent regulator, has earned a reputation for transparency and competence”

Baijal spent a year after retirement writing the book "Disinvestment in India- I Lose and you Gain", published by Pearsons. He also co-founded a strategy consulting firm Noesis in partnership with Niira Radia. He also serves on the boards of GVK, Nestle India and Patni Computers. He works as an independent consultant and advisor to several emerging countries

Controversies

His tenure as TRAI chairman coincided with multiple policy recommendations that are alleged to have benefited some telecom companies, including Reliance Telecom and Tata Teleservices.

Pradip Baijal was the TRAI Chairman when the technology neutral "Unified Access License" was implemented, a policy change which allowed fixed line operators who had paid lower license fees to offer mobile phone services, at first in the limited WLL mode (Wireless in Local Loop) and later, following an out of court settlement between mobile operators and the BJP govt, full mobility. The change in policy took place after several rounds of consultation with the industry participants but was regarded controversial because it allowed companies like Tata and Reliance who had paid much lower license fees for limited mobility to provide full mobility competing with players who had paid much higher fees for the same privilege. Incidentally, the beneficiary companies in question were both clients of Niira Radia.

The TRAI, headed by Pradip Baijal at the time also made a controversial recommendation to the Group of Ministers in 2003, where he recommended a fixed charge of Rs.1658 crores as license fee for UAS (Unified Access License) without adjustments for inflation or market growth since 2001. Defenders of the policy claimed that it promoted sector growth, and merited equivalent pricing given limited growth in teledensity between 2001 and 2003. However once again the beneficiaries of this flip-flip of policy were again clients of Niira Radia. Pradip Baijal was also part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of several government companies, along with Arun Shourie as Minister. Among the transactions he worked on was the sale of government owned telecom company VSNL, that was sold to Tata Teleservices, one of many clients of Niira Radia, whose firm he later joined. Many highly controversial decisions taken during his tenure in the Disinvestment and later Telecom Ministry and finally the TRAI, which were regarded as controversial even back then, acquired a whole new paradigm, when he formally entered into a post-retirement assignment with the controversial lobbyists who was the beneficiary of many of his flip-flops.

His houses and offices were recently raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of their investigations into the 2G spectrum scam.

Post-Retirement

He recently co-founded a strategy consulting firm Noesis. Noesis was established to provide strategic advisory services based on a blend of experience, foresight, a deep understanding of the economic and business landscape, and the ability to take a holistic view. It has been since established among the partners in this consulting firm was Niira Radia whose clients are among the beneficiaries of the policy flip-flops that occured under Baijals watch.

References

1. http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/cbi-searches-premisesniira-radia-pradip-baijal/418441/
2. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/imt-2000/DocumentsIMT2000/TechnicalArticles2008/IndiaPaper_FINAL.pdf
3. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22630772/The-Indian-Telecom-Industry
4. Scam Notes http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/24765/Scam+tones.html?complete=1
5. Did Pradip Baijal make a mistake in joining Niira Radia's firm? http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/7108777.cms
6. CBI conducts raids; swoops on DMK associates, Niira Radia & Pradip Baijal http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/CBI-conducts-raids-swoops-on-DMK-associates-Niira-Radia--Pradip-Baijal/articleshow/7108883.cms

• Indian civil servants
• Living people