BSNL Q1-FY26 has landed some big bad news in the form of a whopping loss of Rs 1,051 crore. So much for the union communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia declaring rather prematurely that the state telco was out of ‘ventilator’ support of the UPA years and firmly re-ensconced in the people’s hearts.

In recent times, the minister has pivoted BSNL’s growth strategy to consumer satisfaction and the milestones have been defined: improved QoS, subscriber growth, upselling and cross selling of products. The targets too have been pronounced - 50 per cent growth in consumer mobility business and ARPU, 25-30 per cent growth in enterprise business, for FY26. All this is the stuff of BSNL’s strategic review and planning.

However, there is a high severity mismatch between stated intent and reality. Mr Scindia himself has acknowledged that BSNL has structural and competitive problems. This is the devil in the detail. Truth be told, BSNL has a leadership crisis. It is rudderless and a large part of that blame is on the telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal.

Robert Ravi, DDG of DoT has held the looking-after charge of CMD of BSNL & MTNL since July 2024. The CMD post eligibility is for Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) officer. Though Robert Ravi is a junior officer of Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) he was given the job initially for six months, followed by two extensions. During this adhoc tenure he issued orders worth Rs 45,000 crore for BharatNet-Phase III and much was mired in complaints. There are other contracts also like Freedom Plan, Selfcare App that have seen its share of controversy. Now the administrative net is being cast through a DPC to install Robert Ravi as the regular CMD.

This edition’s cover story provides all step-wise details. Plus reveals what seems to be an accounting fraud of how BSNL is towing MTNL’s revenues to itself while MTNL is left holding the expenses.