Is Your Company Failing?- Here is Your Gift!

I am familiar with startup agonies of failing quarterly numbers, not making payroll, being unsuccessful in raising additional rounds, and raising debt when the business is not doing well.

On top of it, will be the painful calls explaining to investors what went wrong or how we will fix it ('I have a LoI and the customer demo is going really well').

The worse of course is missing payroll - first, it is delayed by a week, then another. Somewhere it ends up paying salaries for the previous to the previous month. And sneers from senior employees, grunting in the family, missing family functions because you have to carry gifts. Painful.

Imagine instead that you get a surprise gift box in the mail, with a comforting letter stating how your plans can still be met, and how additional funds will be organized so you can keep the team happy and meet all the expansion plans over the next few years. And this gift box comes from the highest power in the land - from the government.

Hard to imagine. But I would throw a week-long party :)!

BSNL LTD - the Indian telecom PSU, is a 100% Govt. of India owned Public Sector Undertaking with an authorized share capital of Rs. 40,000 crores (about $4.9 billion) and paid-up capital of Rs. 12,500 crores ($3.04 billion). Its total income during FY 2020-21 was Rs.18, 595 crores (about $2.2 billion).

As of Dec 2021, BSNL LTD had 7.6 mil wireline subscribers, 113 mil wireless subscribers, and 2.3 mil broadband subscribers (source: BSNL website).

BSNL LTD financial performance summary:

Financial Year 2021

Revenues: Rs. 18.595k cr (about $2.2 billion), Operating Profits: Rs.1.177k cr (about $145.3 million), Net Loss: Rs. 7.441k cr (about $918 million)

Financial Year 2022

Revenues: Rs 19.053k cr ($ 2.352 billion), Operating Profits: Rs 944 cr ($116 million), Net Loss: Rs 6.982k cr ($861 million)

Financial Year 23

Revenues: Rs 20.6kcr (about $2.55 billion), Operating Profits: Rs 1.55k cr (about $192 million), Net Loss: Rs. 8.16k cr (about $1 billion).

Here is what?@BSNL got in its big gift box:

1. Rs 89k cr (about $10.98bil for 4G, 5G launch, roll out) of which

a) Rs 46.39k cr (about $5.72 billion was for 700MHz spectrum)

b) Rs 26.18k cr (about $3.23 billion for 70MHz in 3300 MHz band)

c) Rs 6.565k cr (about $810 million for 26 GHz band)

d) Rs 9.428k cr (about $1.16 billion for 2500 MHz band)

e) Rs 532 cr (about $65 million for miscellaneous)

This is part of a third and final tranche of an overall Rs 3.2 Trillion (about $40 billion in all) to stabilize, recover from losses, invest, and roll out 4G, and 5G services pan-India and then compete with the big private giants!

Phew......sounds like a plan!! Thank you GoI! So generous :)

About the Author: Sridhar Pai Tonse writes about life, tech, markets, and startups. I coach startup founders on lead generation, strategy, and Go To Market. Join my free weekly mastermind classes starting next week. Follow me at https://youtube.com/@tonsepai and here on www.dhirubhai.net/in/tonsepai