The Name Rings A Bell

The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) was set up on April 1, 1986, by the Government of India (GoI). MTNL is among the foremost public sector undertakings in terms of divesture of equity by GoI which now holds a 56.25 per cent stake in the company. The corporate has been entrusted with the management, control and operations of telecom services in the metropolitan limits of Mumbai and Delhi. MTNL’s success can be gauged from the fact that it is to be the first leading public sector undertaking (PSU) to be listed on the tech-heavy premier US bourse, NASDAQ. The government has disinvested approximately 245.63 million shares (including GDR 40) up to March 31, 1999. The company’s scrips are listed on the country’s major stock exchanges of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Calcutta. GDR floats of the company are listed on the London Stock Exchange.

In the past 14 years, the company has made rapid strides to emerge as India’s leading and one of Asia’s largest telecom operating companies. A variety of services have been made available to customers connected to electronic exchanges. Computerised morning alarm, voice mail, radio paging, automatic changed number announcement are some of the new facilities the valued MTNL customer enjoys. Sustained efforts have been made to maintain the various operational parameters such as NSD, call completion rate and manual trunk efficiency. Says chairman & managing director S. Rajagopalan: "To improve the interface with customers, training sessions in effective communications are being held with employees. We are also in the process of shortlisting a few companies to train them in these spheres. Workers have agreed to six-day working as it is a public service agency." To improve customer relations, MTNL has been holding regular telephone adalats. The company is also making efforts to put in place an e-shop where bills for public utility services like telephone, water and power can be paid through a credit card over the Net. Last, but not the least, MTNL shares its handsome profits with stakeholders and, in some fundamental ways, is a lifeline for the underprivileged.