Much to the surprise of friends and family, in 1991, B.K. Syngal resigned a plush tax-free job with Inmarsat in London to head Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), an old-style, stodgy public sector company.
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Over the next seven years, Syngal transformed VSNL into a quick new-generation telecom behemoth. By connecting India to the world through high-speed digital links, he was instrumental in the emergence of the Indian software sector as a global player and in a move that would revolutionise the country and all our lives, he brought the internet to India in 1995.
In June 1998, he was named as one of ‘The 50 Stars of Asia’ by BusinessWeek magazine. But that same week, he was fired with immediate effect, by fax, for disagreeing with a politician. However, Syngal went on to head Reliance and BPL’s cellular telecom forays and played a key role in exposing the 2G spectrum scam.
'Telecom Man' by writer and journalist Sandipan Deb is a never-before-told insider account on the challenges faced by B.K. Syngal. It takes the reader from the perilous work of installing pioneering transmission systems in the snow-clad mountains of Kashmir and the fiery deserts of Rajasthan to high-stakes international negotiations.
Sandipan Deb is an independent journalist. He has been the Editor of The Financial Express, Managing Editor of Outlook and Founder-Editor of Outlook Money, Open and Swarajya magazines. He is the author of The IITians: How an Indian Institution and Its Alumni Are Reshaping the World; Fallen Angel: The Making and Unmaking of Rajat Gupta; and The Last War. His writings cover the spectrum of the economy, culture, cricket, quantum physics, cinema and society.
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