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Pradip Baijal is a controversial retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service. 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. 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, and has several accomplishments across multiple sectors, while on the other hand, he is seen as a controversial bureaucrat who colluded with politicians and corporate lobbyists to cause loss to the exchequer.

In his distinguished 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 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.

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.

Accomplishments

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.

In fact, it was he who 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. This was by no means a small decision given the clout and might of BSNL and the support of department of telecom to continue with the levy, which works out to not less than Rs 5,000 crore.

Another step of far-reaching implications was Baijal's continued thrust on 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 incredible work in the sector, the sector grew remarkably - from adding 0.2 million subsribers a year, the sector was adding close to 20 million subscribers monthly by the time he retired.

Controversies

His tenure as TRAI chairman coincided with multiple policy flip-flops that are alleged to have caused huge loss to the exchequer and directly benefitting telecom companies like Reliance Telecom and Tata Teleservices who were clients of a lobbying firm that he later, post retirement joined as a consultant .

Pradeep Baijal was the TRAI secretary when the controversial technology neutral "Unified Access License" was implemented, a policy flip-flop which allowed fixed line operators who had paid much 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. This gave an advantage to players like Reliance and Tata Teleservices who managed to get mobile spectrum without paying the hefty fees that earlier operators like BPL Mobile had paid. Pradip Baijal also made a very controversial recommendation to the Group of Ministers in 2003, that was used as a basis to give favours to the same set of companies. Baijal recommended a charge of a measly Rs.1658 crores as license fee without adjustments for inflation or market growth since 2001: a policy that again benefited the same set of companies..

Incidentally, Pradip Baijal was also part of the team that was involved in the disinvestment of Govt owned telecom agency VSNL, that was sold to Tata Teleservices: one of the companies that formed the client base of alleged scam-kingpin Niira Radia, whose firm he later joined. His houses and offices were recently raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation as part of their investigations into the Telecom 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.

He also took a consultancy assignment with the lobbying firm run by Niira Radia, whose clients are among the beneficiaries of the policy flip-flops taken when he was part of the Government.

External links

• Storm Raiser
• Interview
• Retirement
• Dilemma
• SPEECH
• Regulation

1. Did Pradip Baijal make a mistake in joining Niira Radia's firm? http://m.economictimes.com/PDAET/articleshow/7108777.cms
2. Scam Tones http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/24765/Scam+tones.html?complete=1
3. 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