M.F. Farooqui, chairman of the Broadband India Forum
Consider the major schemes of the current government and it’s clear that broadband has a large role to play in most of them. Broadband is now almost like electricity or roads – a basic prerequisite for development. As chairman of the Broadband India Forum since October 2015, former telecom secretary M.F. Farooqui is conscious of the fact that India is lagging behind other countries in terms of broadband penetration as well as in meeting the country’s needs and demand.
“The big challenge is to ensure that the inclusivity of broadband is widespread. Today, the reach of broadband is limited to largely the well-off sections of society. However, we are planning to go from 175 million to 600 million by 2020, which can be a major enabler not only for the rich but also for the not-so-rich, for the youth and for innovators. Therefore, this is the basic infrastructure for the future of the country,” says Farooqui.
The forum is an independent think tank that works to enhance broadband penetration in India. It has more than 40 members including technology providers, telecom operators, internet service providers, cable TV operators, value-added service providers and professionals. Its role is mainly to focus the attention of stakeholders on the remaining gaps, such as the fact that remote areas of the country that cannot be reached by fibre need satellite communication.
Farooqui says that the potential of satellite communication tends to be underestimated. “Just as there was a landline earlier and then the wireless came and prices came down, enabling the faster spread of telecom services and unleashing its economic potential, so too will it happen with satellite communication 10 or 15 years down the line. And this is why we are focusing on it,” he says.
Farooqui is an IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. His career began as a sub-collector in Tamil Nadu and has included serving as secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, and special secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests. He has held important positions in virtually every government department including law and justice, external affairs, urban development and poverty alleviation, science and technology, finance, and economic affairs. He has also served as Consul General of India in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and as chief executive and member secretary of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority.
“We are going to see the integration of the telecom sector in practically every aspect of economic life. I think what we see over the next two years will be far beyond what we can imagine today.”
One of his early stints was at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as deputy secretary during 1990-91, much before the spectrum scandals erupted. Interestingly, he rejoined DoT as secretary in 2013, and had to formulate policies at a very challenging time because it was in the wake of the spectrum controversies and the department had to devise the structure to get the auction going.
“There was a lot of fine-tuning required because if you set the reserve price too high, there would be no bidder. In fact, this is what happened in two of the earlier auctions that were attempted – there were not enough responses. At the same time, if you set the reserve price too low, there would be allegations that this has not been done correctly. So, the first and foremost challenge was how to strike the right balance,” he says.
The second most important task was to make spectrum available and in such a way that it was consistent with the new technologies that were coming in. They also needed to decide what should be the minimum size of the block, whether people could be allowed to bid for smaller sizes and how, and should the successful bidders be allotted different bands, different frequencies, etc. These were all issues that had to be calibrated very carefully.
The third major challenge, says Farooqui, was that FDI in the telecom industry was allowed only up to 74 per cent. However, DoT increased this to 100 per cent because the sector was facing a resource crunch.
“The two other areas where we took major initiatives, which later got translated into full-fledged policies, were spectrum sharing and spectrum trading. In the February 2014 auction, we said that spectrum sharing and trading will be allowed and we also came up with broad indicative guidelines. Subsequently, the department worked on this in greater detail and now spectrum sharing and trading has formally come into play,” he says.
He mentions another key initiative taken by him and his team, which was about extending the telecom reach and strengthening telecom connectivity in the North-eastern region and in leftwing extremist-affected areas of the region. Increased connectivity in the region, says Farooqui, has made a huge difference to the socio-economic life here. Recently, the current telecom secretary mentioned in a speech that over 2,000 towers have been erected in the Northeast as part of the government’s objective to boost telecom infrastructure and connectivity.
It is no surprise that Farooqui says his job as secretary, DoT, was among his most memorable assignments, not just because of the challenges but because the public mood around the subject was so negative at the time due to the allegations of corruption that dominated politics and public discourse at the time. Public confidence in the system had sunk owing to the spectrum scandal, and restoring it was an uphill task. But he and his team managed it.
“I think that to put in place a credible auction mechanism and a credible trading and sharing mechanism, and to give confidence to both the public and the industry that things are going back to normal were major achievements,” he says.
Farooqui’s childhood was spent moving around Uttar Pradesh because his father was a judge. He recalls enjoying hunting, when it was still legal. As a young boy, he looked up to his mother for guidance. “I remember so much about her, but there is one couplet in particular that she used to recite, which I always remember – ‘Girte hain shahsawar hi maidan-e-jung mein. Woh tifl kya girenge jo ghutnon ke bal chalein?’. It means that there is no harm in failing as long as you try,” he says.
“The big challenge is to ensure that the inclusivity of broadband is widespread. Today, the reach of broadband is limited to largely the well-off sections of society. However, we are planning to go from 175 million to 600 million by 2020.”
Farooqui has a bachelor’s degree in physics, mathematics and chemistry, and a master’s in physics. He also has an MBA from Madras University. He is on the board of directors of a few companies and is also involved in philanthropic work “in a very modest way”, he adds.
In his spare time, he plays bridge and relaxes with his family and friends. He is also devoting as much time as he can to the book he is writing. This is his attempt to distil the principles of leadership by examining the lives and teachings of important religious figures.
“What I find fascinating is that somebody could have a leadership style that influenced not only his generation but many generations that followed. For example, even today people quote from the Bhagvad Gita and I think some of the principles on management and leadership that it expounds are very interesting. The life of Prophet Muhammad also has such examples. I feel that if we can extract the essence of their leadership, we can show that many things are actually common to people of different religions and in this way, we can help channelise the energy of the youth in the right direction.”
On the future of the telecom sector, he says that the next big phase of growth – mobile data – has started. According to Farooqui, the country is going to see healthy growth in the sector for a few years because data is also integrated with many other economic activities.
“We are going to see the integration of the telecom sector in practically every aspect of economic life,” he says. “I think what we see over the next two years will be far beyond what we can imagine today.”
