Heavy-handed regulation, slow-moving reforms characterize Modi's one year in office: Vodafone chief

By A Representative
Prominent British daily "Financial Times" (February 26) has criticized Prime Minsister Narendra Modi for "heavy-handed regulation and slow-moving political reforms" as the main hurdles for India’s "battered" telecom sector's efforts to move towards developing next-generation broadband services. The daily quotes the outgoing chief executive of Vodafone, India's second biggest telecom operator, to warn that India may risk missing "a huge opportunity”.
Marten Pieters, who leaves his post at the UK-based telecom group this month, says the daily, just another "most prominent foreign executive" who has chosen to finally break silence and chosen to complain about "limited progress in improving India’s business environment under Modi". The remarks come even as Modi is about to complete one year in office.
One of India's largest foreign investors, which has spent more than $12 billion in developing its business since it launched its India operations in 2007, the daily says, the Vodafone group has "endured a number of problems from a highly publicized $2.6 billion tax dispute to frequent battles over inadequate and excessively expensive supplies of telecom spectrum."
Pointing out that most recently Vodafone "spent a further $4 billion in India’s most recent auctions last month", Pieters is quoted as saying, "India’s issuance of spectrum in bits and pieces has driven up prices and let telecoms groups with roughly $55 billion in net debts." He regrets, “The government has been very focused over the last few years to tap this industry as a milk cow.”
Pieters believes that the telecoms sector is in a “fundamentally worse” condition than when he took up his role as chief executive officer in 2009, adding, the company's debts now mean "operators are unable to roll out services to rural areas or to invest in new broadband infrastructure, hurting telecoms operators as well as companies in fast-growing sectors such as e-commerce."
“We have a huge broadband penetration problem in this country,” Pieters says, adding, “We are worse than Kenya, we are worse than lots of other countries which are supposed to be much less developed than India. There is such a huge opportunity to build services that would help development. But by driving the prices up you create a debt overloaded industry.”
According to Pieters, conditions on the ground haven't yet improved in India, with telecom companies facing excessive taxes and charges, which meant Vodafone had to pay "nearly 30 per cent of gross revenues to the government." He adds, "In general there is too much bureaucracy for the wrong reasons. Tax collection has been extremely aggressive, and we have not seen much change there yet."
The daily says, the Vodafone executive's comment comes even as it begins rolling out superfast 4G telecoms services later this year, even as its focus continuing to be on expanding take-up of more basic data services, where massive opportunities remain for growth.

Comments

Beyond India-China borders: Economic links expand, political gaps persist

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Despite growing trade between India and China, a persistent trust deficit continues to shape their bilateral relationship. Expanding economic engagement has not fully resolved political differences, many of which stem from historical legacies as well as contemporary geopolitical concerns. Border disputes—often traced to colonial-era arrangements—remain a significant obstacle to deeper cooperation, while differing strategic alignments in global affairs add further complexity.

GreenTech Summit claims NCR as key green building hub, without pan-India comparison

By A Representative The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), under the Confederation of Indian Industry, held its GreenTech Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where industry representatives, policymakers and sustainability professionals discussed the adoption of climate technologies in India’s built environment.

Gujarat cadre to HDFC: When bureaucratic style hits corporate walls

By Rajiv Shah I was a little amused by the abrupt March 17, 2026 resignation of Atanu Chakraborty —a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch who retired from the government in 2020—as chairman of HDFC Bank . Much of what may have led to his decision to quit this ostensibly high post—actually a non-executive, part-time role—is by now well known. I followed most of it online with considerable interest, partly because I had interacted with him umpteen times during my stint as The Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar from 1997 to 2012.

Operation Epic Fury: Making America great at the world’s expense?

By N.S. Venkataraman* The decades-long enmity between Iran and Israel is well-documented, but historically, their direct confrontations have been brief, constrained by the logistical and economic limitations of sustained warfare. The current conflict in the Middle East, however, marks a radical and dangerous departure from this pattern.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

India has been getting its economic growth wrong for two decades, say top economists

By Jag Jivan* India's official GDP figures have misrepresented the trajectory of the world's fifth-largest economy for the better part of two decades, according to a major new working paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). It finds that India overstated annual growth by up to two percentage points after 2011 — and understated it during the boom years of the 2000s.

'Tax the top': Nationwide protests demand action as 1% control 40% of India’s wealth

By A Representative Civil rights groups across the country observed the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh on March 23, as people from diverse backgrounds united to raise their voices against growing economic inequality. The mobilisations marked the launch of a nationwide campaign against inequality, running from March 23 to April 14 (Ambedkar Jayanti), under the banner of the “Tax The Top” campaign.

Beyond the election manifesto: Why climate is now a kitchen table issue

By Vikas Meshram* March has long been a month of gentle transition, the period when winter softly retreats and a mild warmth signals nature’s renewal. Yet, in recent years, this dependable rhythm has been disrupted. This year, since the beginning of March, temperatures across vast swathes of the country have shattered previous records, soaring to between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius in some regions. This is not a mere fluctuation in the weather; it is a serious and alarming indicator of climate change .

Search This Blog