by ITI, Indian Telephones Industries, was the 1st Indian PSU.
It was established in 1948 to serve the telephony requirements primarily those of the government.
With the privatisation in 80s and liberalisation in 1990s the company was thrown open to competition which evenutally led to it being declared a sick unit in 2003-4. But the story doesn’t end there.
The light at the end of the tunnel came when Central government sanctioned ₹4,150 crore for ITI Ltd. in February 2014.
Since then, ITI Limited geared itself with a comeback strategy – one with new partnerships and embracing latest technologies. ITI has been traditionally supplying equipment to BSNL and MTNL, along with military-grade encryption gear.
What led to the revival:
“We decided to look beyond telecom and saw broader opportunities in IoT, data centres, with increasing technology usage. We have diversified, entered into new business areas like data centres and IoT,” says S Gopu, Chairman and Managing Director, ITI .
At the same time, the company had to reduce costs, manage manpower and compete in an intensely competitive marketplace. It has aligned with government-backed initiatives like “Digital India”, “Swachh Bharat” and BharatNet.
Vision of ITI: Attaining self-reliance in the field of Telecommunication needs of the Country. The Government of India holds majority equity stake in the Company. ITI has its Registered & Corporate Office located at Dooravaninagar, Bangalore.
Here are some of the plans the new avatar of the company has:
- Toilet-feedback device, part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Will allow users to give feedback on hygiene levels of public toilets by pressing a button which goes to the municipal commissioner. The cloud-based solution ensures a ministry official in Delhi can also scrutinise the feedback thousands of miles away, and in real-time. ITI may produce and supply these units to 12 states.
- Commercialising cardiac monitoring wearables
References:
- http://www.forbesindia.com/article/leaderboard/iti-indias-oldest-psu-looks-to-startups-for-fresh-lease-of-lifes/48323/1
- http://www.itiltd.in/products
- It’s Deja vu of the past glory, 70 years later. The Hindu Feb, 2020.
