At the time of joining the Indian Telecom Service, Govind Das Gaiha had no idea that he would end up working in a pioneering and dizzyingly fast-moving sector that would revolutionise communication when it was opened up in the 1990s.
As CMD of Telecommunication Consultants India Limited (TCIL), he is introducing the latest technology not only to India but also to countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, often where the terrain is harsh, civil strife is rampant and security is precarious.
The company currently has projects in 22 countries. In the 27 years since its establishment as a premier telecom consultancy and engineering company by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under the aegis of the communications ministry, TCIL has worked in 50 countries.
Past projects demonstrate the scale of its work: the rehabilitation of Kuwait’s telecom network after the Gulf War, a massive tele-education and tele-medicine project in Africa, installation of GSM-R on the Indian Railways (Eastern Region) involving giving mobiles to everyone from the train driver to the controller, and a nationwide system of “Kisan Cell Centres” where farmers can call a free line to enquire about information on seeds, fertilisers, commodity prices, etc.
Gaiha derives great satisfaction from his work, both at the personal level and in the wider sense of helping neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan to build much-needed infrastructure and, in the process, sowing the seeds of goodwill for India.
In Afghanistan recently, TCIL installed 35,000 telephone connections across 11 provinces. “Leave aside the terrible security situation, the harsh winter alone was difficult when we were erecting the telecom towers. But our staff are used to challenging situations. That’s what makes TCIL special. We are used to working in very difficult circumstances and yet finishing our projects successfully and on time,” says Gaiha.
The dedication in TCIL’s in-house book, The Saga of TCIL, a Truly Indian MNC, published on the occasion of its silver jubilee, is a tribute to these employees: “To all TCIL employees who have carried out projects in difficult terrains facing civic strife and terrorism to ensure that people get connected with all parts of the world.”
Nothing about TCIL remotely resembles a government institution, neither the work culture nor even the appearance of the state-of-the-art TCIL Bhawan, located on the Outer Ring Road in Greater Kailash in New Delhi. It is smart and clean. None of the ubiquitous paan stains found in government offices. The maintenance of the building has been outsourced.
It is also an “intelligent” building where everything from the air-conditioning, to the monitoring of people’s movement and recording of the arrival and departure of all staff is automated and computerised. “If I arrive half an hour late for work, I have to explain why. If it’s not work related, that time is deducted from my leave. It’s the same for everyone,” says Gaiha.
The building also undertakes water harvesting. A plant was installed in 2003 to collect the rainwater that falls on the ground and the rooftop and then recharge the underground aquifers, thereby raising the water-table and saving vast quantities of water.
Whether it’s laying down 900 km of fibre in Nepal to connect 79 cities in the country or taking OPGW technology to Algeria where working was so dangerous that every group of workers had special security, Gaiha says TCIL staff take whatever comes in their stride.
Gaiha was born in Delhi but spent much of his childhood years in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, mainly in Meerut where his father, now 92, practised law. In fact, although Gaiha was a 1968 electrical engineering graduate from Banaras Hindu University, around 1994 he realised, as the sector was opening up, that he needed knowledge of law too.
During the day, he worked at MTNL.From 6 to 9 p.m., he studied law in a parttime course at Delhi University. His wife, facing the prospect of lonely evenings while he read law, joined him on the same course and also qualified. “You need knowledge of law as a technocrat. Every technology you introduce has legal ramifications which you need to understand. This enables you to function better,” he says.
After graduation, he joined the Indian Telecom Service and travelled all over the country ?? Jalandhar, Rajkot, Indore, Ghaziabad, Guntur. He had two young sons, Ashutosh and Aditya, at the time who had a difficult time coping not just with new schools and new friends but a new syllabus each time they moved house.
“It was hard but it helped them grow.They learnt to deal with difficult circumstances. Sometimes, they would find, in a new school, that they had already covered the syllabus being taught but had not covered the syllabus already covered by the class. They did well nevertheless,” says Gaiha.
In 1978, the family went to Botswana when Gaiha was sent on deputation as a telecom training expert to help the Botswana state telecom company train its employees. “It was fantastic, a great experience of Africa. I travelled all over Botswana and South Africa although somehow I never got round to going on a safari. The people were very receptive and appreciative of Indians. They felt they could learn something useful from us.”
Since then, the training centre where he worked has become the predominant training facility serving Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland.
When he came home in 1983, he became director, telecom, Varanasi, in charge of 18 telecom districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. In virtually every job, Gaiha has been responsible for bringing in the latest technology satellites, switching systems, microwave radio relay systems, wireless in local loop, CDMA or synchronous digital hierarchy systems.
Asked to name which of his numerous assignments he has found most enjoyable, Gaiha says they were all satisfying because each involved introducing new technology. “It meant keeping up to date constantly with the latest developments, but the training we kept getting from DoT solved that problem,” he says.
From 1992, he spent many years with MTNL, first as general manager, material management, in Delhi and later as general manager, project management south. From 1998 to 2002, Gaiha worked as director, technical, at MTNL’s corporate headquarters.
In 2002, he joined TCIL as CMD, managing a workforce of around 1,500 engineers and technicians, and identifying the geographical and technological thrust areas for expanding TCIL’s business.
Over the years, Gaiha has learnt the importance of teamwork. “As a manager, you have to get on with your superiors and your subordinates to build a team. To motivate staff, our options on salaries are limited given that we are government owned. But we make up for that by giving staff interesting work,” he says.
His own work is so interesting or may be the industry is so exciting that Gaiha says he looks forward to every day. He keeps a close eye on the competition. “We are currently cutting costs, particularly on travel. If I need to send someone to Jordan, I won’t send a person from here; I’ll get someone from our team in Saudi Arabia to go. For submitting tenders too, if it’s possible to do so by e-mail, we’d rather do that than send someone in person.”
Gaiha retires next February. He has no plans for life beyond retirement, except perhaps to play more tennis. This is a passion born of his undergraduate days at Banaras Hindu University. He plays three to four times a week.
With few other hobbies, he is quite content to spend his spare time in his new Gurgaon home where he enjoys having a cup of tea sitting in his garden admiring the flowers,and keeping himself up to date on the latest technology trends.
