REVIVING ITI THROUGH CHINESE HELP

The public sector ITI could be brought to glory and action through Chinese help and participation; Sudden technological and market impacts owing to globalization could be seen as reasons for stagnation of Telecom giants like ITI. Chinese participation in revival of  Public Sector could be seen as a weird concept. The idea is to get back the old ITI which had some thirty thousand people working in it with dynamism and purpose.

Why the Chinese? Point 1 they are our neighbour with land connections which involves lesser supply chain costs; Point 2 they have a population as that of India when combined creates a large market for wired and wireless telephony; Point 3 the Chinese have designs which are less costly but of Quality and time need not be spent for re-design; Point 4 large amounts of Chinese Telecom work can be out-sourced to India creating scores of  employment in the manufacturing sector , Point 5 a combined work and technological force that the two countries can engender in the Telecommunication field can supply extra-ordinary telecom products to nearby continents. Seen from any angle a co-ordinated action can benefit both the countries and even the world at large.

Times have changed and so have markets, technology and paradigms and  some of the foundations created in the past must be preserved ,nurtured, maintained and developed even if it is with outside support and help which might be the need of the hour.

VENKATESH PRASAD AS PRESIDENT OF KSCA

Venkatesh Prasad winning the Presidential election of KSCA is to some extent a good news for many and even better news for me. Shri. Shanta Kumar was a good contender for the post and was sportive in the way he took up the challenge to stand for elections of KSCA.

The common ground between me and Venkatesh Prasad is that both of us were reared within the ITI complex and he learnt fast bowling at the cricket pavilion within the ITI complex. Venkatesh was a successful fast bowler on the international arena and makes ITI proud by getting to be the KSCA President.

 

THE NEW BSNL LAND-LINE SYSTEM

 The new BSNL land-line telephone system coupled with internet hotspot(optional) is technologically different in many ways from conventional co-axial cable systems. It uses optical fiber upto the last meter and then uses an adapter which is power operated to connect to the land line. Data transmission of voice and other data is much faster and is a good option.

The dis-advantage of this system is that it always needs power back-up. If power fails the system does not operate. BSNL can supply a small UPS with this system to give power back-up during power failures to keep the system operational.

BSNL along with institutions like ITI could team up to set up such optical fibre broad-band telephone systems in countries that still use co-axial cables. This would be a good international operation for both the institutions and other support institutions in this feild.

ORIGINS OF ITI ( INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES )

 The behometh called ITI has contributed in large measure to the development of the country as a whole and very few countries both developed or developing would have any semblance to a near wonder of the World that ITI is. Blessed with parks and stadia and   extra- ordinary conglomerate of  residential facilities  it is a near wonder of the World.That the planners of this country had the whim of envisaging such a facility talks of their competence and pioneering spirit.Public sectors have contributed to social growth and national harmony by breeding a generation of educated and well -oriented populace.

How did such a Industry take shape in Bangalore? This a story by itself  which needs careful analysis and understanding.

The model of ITI could be drawn from the large textile mills that existed around the world which had complex machinery and with time an integrated outfit was created with all facilities around the unit and the textile sector and to a lesser extent the tea processing centres gave a ready model of economic sustenance and viability  which was later applied to other industrial organizations. Most of the workers and staff living near-by and a lesser fraction transported to the complex by factory vehicles-the expenses incurred were largely over-ruled by the profits generated where people combined their efforts in Industrial harmony.

What was this place called Dooravaninagar before independance ? A largely agricultural belt with many lakes around with very few houses and settlements. There were large barracks which housed Italian prisoners  from the Second World war   who were brought by air to the old Bangalore airport and then ferried by train to the K R Puram railway station to be ushered into large barracks which used to exixt opposite to the ITI main gate. These prisoners; a large proportion of them were made to do manual labour for the English and this section of people were taken to Gheecenter near the kottur village for milk-processing  which means they had to walk or driven all the way from opposite the ITI main gate to kottur and back.

Such a large prisoner barrack was maintained  by English military officials who held a 24/7 vigil on them and one of the most earlier residential apartment at this place was the house of the Commandant which is the old Dooravaninagar post office  which could have come up around 1930 or so .The Commandant of the English military needed a telephone and a small exchange and repair facility came up in a small hutment which could be seen near the f-51 plant within the iti premises. This exchange was a strowger exchange which could support ten lines. One of the lines were within the barrack itself..another could have a link to gheecenter in kottur, another within the house of the commandant and other few lines for various other kinds of purposes which seved as a real-time link between the hierarchy of the English military operating at this place. The fact of the matter is that this military barrack brought telephone into modern day Dooravaninagar.

Add to that, land-line telephones need servicing and maintenance and a small telephone repair facility must have existed at f-51 shop itself. Much later when ITI was created my father used to say that one of the earlier General Work Managers Mr.Glass used to live in the Old Post-Office building which I mentioned earlier.

Water was pumped into this hamlet from the Tippagondanahalli reservoir the pumping station exists opposite the ITC factory in Cox-town. Modern day Dooravaninagar had telephones, exchanges and a water link from the TGH  reservoir.

Some-thing about the Strowger exchanges. It was a complex Electro-Mechanical and Magnetic system using relays for switching. It needed all forms of Engineering ,from the making of the case which was metal to relays to coil winding and more than anything else it worked on the concept of Stepper motors. It is a rotational device and made noise while operating but still a reliable switching device. Making such exchanges needed complex industrial effort but was worth it because there were no other substitute for it.

With the on-set of Independence and with the Government bent on providing employment a large Indian populace largely starved by the earlier administration , the combination of Exchange, Telephones and the supply of water tempted the Government to build a large and self-sufficient Industrial structure parallel to the large industrial set-ups seen in England ,Europe and Russia.

Thus started a set-up to my understanding that gave warmth and aegis to a wide variety of people with varied talents who in a concerted way contributed to the development of the Economy and the largely formidable country India appears to be today.

 

D R KARTHIKEYAN IPS

 

The above is the portrait of Mr. D R Karthikeyan who used to be the Commissioner of Bangalore Police.This man had a special connection with ITI and appears to me was a close friend of C S S Rao the then CMD of ITI. Many times he used to come to inaugurate the ITI Flood -lit Tournament some times dressed in a Safari suit.He was a pet of CM Gundu Rao they say and shot into prominence as head of the SIT that investigated the Assassination of Shri Rajiv Gandhi and did a good job co-ordinating various domains.  

THE CONCEPT OF BIG BALL

 

I have always been an ardent admirer and a player of Basket Ball. Ever since this game was introduced in our school in the early 1970’s I have played this game at few levels. I was formally trained in Basket Ball by a Karnataka State player  Somakumar  who used to play for ITI. It was a one month coaching camp with two hour sessions in the morning and evening and was handled by a bunch of senior coaches. I used to be in the Basket ball  court of NIT Calicut most of the time sometimes even playing in the rain.

 

Rules of Basket ball have been modified from time to time and now we have a three pointer rule..a penalty area marked by a semicircle and goals from outside this area get three points. Fair enough to the skill of shorter players.

 

Strictly speaking Basket Ball is an unfair game. I sometimes meet  Mr.Aman Sharma  Basket Ball coach at SAI sports authority of India and we discuss such issues. Unfair because it is widely a tall mans game.Even countries and teams field tall players who have a distinct unfair advantage over the shorter ones. When I watch this game played in some countries some very tall people make a mockery of the game hanging from the basket and inserting almost their complete hands into the basket and the like. Players have evolved and changed but the game has not evolved at the pace at which it should have.

Mr.Aman Sharma,

Basketball Coach,SAI

 

What Iam trying to suggest is that the rigour involved with the game must be increased which would necessitate a new game called BIG BALL being introduced ,very much a modern day Basket Ball but with increased rigour and new set of norms.

 

The rigour of the game can be enhanced by increasing the height of the basket by exactly one feet…the ball could weigh some 200grams more than the present ball weight; increase the length and breadth of the court by some twenty percent and there could be six players on each side…but THE GAME CALLED BIG BALL WORKS WITH A COLLOSAL RULE.IF THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF THE PLAYERS IN A TEAM WERE TO EXCEED SIX FEET THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO PLAY CONVENTIONAL BASKET BALL BUT MUST PLAY THE NEW GAME CALLED BIG BALL.

Sporting pundits around the world must consider this new sport and fine-tune its laws even further..but a new game like this will increase the spoils of the Sporting World and benefit all stake holders.

AJIT DUTT STABBED WITHIN ITI (INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES) PREMISES

The late 1960's  and the early 70's were in some form a tumultuous period for ITI to some extent. The mood and scenario within ITI was largely vehement. To my knowledge when I was a baby there was a stand-off within ITI premises and employees were not let out of the plant for the fear of creating law-and-order problems. The CMD of ITI who ever was at helm at these times had a difficult task at maintaining law and order. Note that ITI had its own elaborate Watch and Ward staff who were used to maintain order. I think there was a full fledged unrest in 1977 and a lock-out of the factory for few months in 1981. My father had a great quality of understanding the circumstances around him and acting and reacting to it in a quick and placid manner which saw him basically put up with the vagaries of the environment. Adjusting switches of Strowger exchanges came handy to him from years of experience and he enjoyed doing it day-after-day which saw our family basically put up with economic challenges of these times. Mrs. Indira Gandhi declared Emergency during these times also due to the inputs of Industrial unrest which she was getting from time to time.

 

By and Large definitely I must say ITI had a peaceful climate barring few incidents which spurted up occasionally and there were times when matters were serious.

 

But the pinnacle of such events was the stabbing of the Works-Manager Ajit Dutt who was the works-manager of ITI -I dont remember the exact year but must have been in 1971. Mr.Dutta Gupta was the GM I think and Iam not fully sure who was the CMD...most possibly it was Shri I K Gupta.. Earlier few employees were suspended from work who organized themselves one morning..some four of them..and inflicted serious injuries on Mr.Ajit Dutt who was the then Works Manager..Ajit Dutt used to live in the house adjacent to the main road that passes through Circle to Ramamurthy Nagar near to the ITI theater.The assailants escaped in panic as there were many employees who were walking to work from the ITI colony who possibly intervened and Mr.Dutt must have been rushed to the ITI hospital  with injuries but out of danger. Later these employees were removed from service and the matter must have become a criminal case.

 

Discipline was even more tightened thereafter with no such bizarre incidents thereafter. The Central Govt. considering the situation started satellite ITI plants in Rae-Bariely,Mankapur and Palghat to decrease the dependence solely on the ITI Bangalore plant for Telecom work.

 

I MEET SHARADHA TEACHER WIFE OF E K NAYANAR

Few weeks ago I met Sharadha teacher the wife of former CM  E K Nayanar .I spoke to her over the phone and she gave the exact location of her house in Kalyasseri and she happened to know well some of our family members.

Uninformed I set out from Bangalore for a one day trip to Cannonore and then taking a local bus and reaching her house in the evening.

I spent some half an hour with her talking various issues.She is the sister of Mr.KPP Nambiar who was CMD of ITI

SATHYA SAI COLLEGE WHITEFEILD BANGALORE

The Sathya Sai College at Whitefeild Bangalore was an option for me for various reasons. It was relatively close to my house, many of my seniors at school studied there, but I was apprehensive if I wold be offered a seat. however I made an application. I had gone to another college christ college (now called Christ University) for admission and as I returned home I found a post card asking me to appear for an interview at Sathya sai arts science and commerce college - as Sathya Sai college was known. 

Mr. Narendra was the principal who along with Mr. Nanjundiah and Mr.Kulkarni were present during the interviewing process. However I was offered a seat to study science and did two years of pre-university education. Divine Sathya Sai Baba used to give his discourses occasionally and his darshan used to happen every day when he was in station. I remember being with him one afternoon with few others when he was leaving for Puttaparthy in his Benz. 

Divine grace Sai Baba made a lasting impression on my life which I realised only decades after I left this place. I liked the Bhajans we used to sing every day  in the morning

Mr. Alvin Drucker used to teach us and handle lecture seminars sometimes. I remember he spoke about homeopathy in one of these sessions. 

It is important for me to say that I did have some miraculous experiences from Baba thereafter and hence i have started looking at him as God. 

We were a bunch of around 25 students from Doorvaninagar who used to travel to Whitefield who were students at Sathya Sai college. During the first year namely 1981 we used to go and return by train ; during the second year we used the ITI bus ( college bus provided by the Indian Telephone Industries)

I fondly remember Mr. H K Nagaraj; Shri Chandrashekar; Shri H N Mahendraraja Urs; Shri Hegde and Shri H R Ravi who used to teach at this college.

Jai Sai Ram

SPORTSMEN ITI PRODUCED

There are many sports persons who were directly or indirectly related to ITI. The sporting facilities of ITI were crucuibles that gave them confidence to pursue sports. I think Prakash Padukone who was an all-England shuttle badminton champion( beating Martin Frost in one of the final tourneys) has his moorings in ITI. I was but a boy but I have heard many people say they have seen him at practice sessions in ITI. His father must have been an employee of ITI. He is the father of Deepika Padukone.

Prakash Padukone

In more recent times Venkatesh Prasad who used to be a fast bowler for India is a product of this establishment. He used to play for the local club and rose to play for the country and was later a bowling coach for the Indian side.

I dont remember the name of a person who captained the Indian kabbadi team at the olympics who was from ITI. He was a tall and well built figure and a treat to watch. He was part of the Indian kabbadi side.Now I recollect his name Mr. Seetharam.

ANNUAL FLOOD LIT TOURNAMENT OF INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES

There used to be an annual sports event of the Indian Telephone Industries during our times. This used to be a full fledged flood-lit tournament held in the pre-midnight and was an event every one looked forward to. It was a very rare and unique feature of ITI with no other public sector conducting such an event in this scale ; will full fledged preparation and co-ordination. I think these games were discontinued somewhere in 1986 or almost immediately later to this year when ITI went ito a down swing. Every summer the matches would commence during the end of march and progress till the middle of may . They used to commence some where at about 6:30 in the evening and last upto about 10:00pm. It was a national event and many participating teams would arrive from all over the country. By around 6:00 crowds begin to flow into the stadium and the stadium would be full a little later. It should be pointed that this event was absolutely free for all with no fee being charged from the spectators and was open to any one who wanted to view it.

There were three games played namely basket ball, Volley Ball and kabaddi as a rule year after year. I think the public favoured these games in this order with crowds largely dwindling for kabaddi matches. Baket ball was highly watched sport because of theaura it created and the pace of the game. Beagles; Bharath; HAL;HMT were all local teams along with the hosts ITI for basket ball matches. the teams from outside the city would be TISCO; Western Railway; Indian overseas bank; Madura coats - to name a few as year after year the teams participating would be different. Number 13 Arvind of Bharath and Somashekar no.14 of ITI team are names I remember from bangalore who were favourites with the crowd. There was a person Abbas and An arjuna award winner Kataria from western Railways. I think some of these teams who came from outside walked away with the rolling trophies during some years of these matches.

This event had a special significance and meaning to the boys growing up in the locality; the urge being to make basket ball posts and play with some improvised form of ball and also several rounds of meetings held among these boys of what name should be given to their teams and some of the over-enthusiastic boys swaering to continue playing with absolute determination and some of them vaguely trying to act and behave like players they saw at the tournament. Strategies were discussed and swords were drawn and there the many elders who passed the way whomhad to pacify the boys telling them they were not playing an imternational match and only one that too in the bylanes of where they stayed with hardly any defined court. This was the heat these games created in the kids only to die away when the sporting event was over and to be revived and remembered the next year. The tournament at ITI in the summer was not just a game - it made kids behave in weird ways and parents were drawn into this fever invariably.

In bangalore those years there used to be an unwelcome shower in the evenings and it was the prayer of every boy looking at the clouds that it did not rain and the games could progress well. However I remember a volley ball match that was fully washed away between APSRTC and KTC (kerala transport corporation..Kunjalikutty was a key volley ball player for this team) by the rain. DDCSM (dharmapuri district co-operative sugar mills) and ITI were other contenders in the semi finals. There was a player panneer selvam who used to play for ddcsm and would single handedly turn matches in the favour of his team . Panner selvam used to play for ITI earlier. Ashwathappa was a retired and old player who was still at his guns for ITI.

Many guests used to come to inaguarate these matches. Mr. Karthikeyan who was commissioner of bangalore police at that time did the honours once. Mostly the guests were dignitaries from within ITI like CMD Mr. C S S Rao

THE INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES BANGALORE

As I mentioned somewhere my father worked for nearly 40 years at the Indian Telephone Industries also called ITI. After independence the Govt of India put up many public sector units in India and ITI is one of them. It is a large Industrial township with many houses built for staff. To some extent it can be said that National Highway 4 runs through the ITI territory.

What a great place it is. During the heydays in the 1970's and early 1980's ITI must have had 25000 employees nearly 200 buses and made telephones and exchanges largely strowger and crossbar exchanges. In the 1990's with privatization the role of ITI began to dwindle with voluntary retirement given to employees and production almost coming to a halt, In 1986 I spent a month inside ITI as a trainee during my stint at engineering college.

ITI used to hold an annual sports meet every year in the summer with games like basketball, volleyball and kabaddi being played. Teams used to come from all over India for the event. I remember I K Gupta,C S S Rao, Swaminathan, K P P Nambiar were all Managing Directors of ITI. ITI has a park in which carnivals were conducted once in a while. ITI hospital is also an enterprise worth mentioning.

But ITI is in a sorry state after 1995 with large scale reduction of employees and not much production. The buses were sold off and the entire township wore a dejected look. Government policies and telecom revolution can be attributed to the decay of ITI.

It would also be worthy to mention about the ITI auditorium or theater where cinema used to be shown every day in the evening and three shows on a sunday. I have seen many block busters in this theater like "Sholay", "Amar Akbar Anthony" in the 1970's

Ramamurthy nagar, Vijanapura and Krishnarajapura are all adjoining areas of ITI; Can ITI be revived is a very vital question and discussed in many quarters. Some years back another public sector in Bangalore HAL was in the doldrums but miraculously revived as a result of globalization. ITI seems to be caught in crossfires and whirlwinds of many kinds. But I still beleive ITI can be revived and the re-birth will result in a transformed ITI. How could ITI be revived...? Please study the following points;

• ITI must be renamed as INDIAN TELECOM INDUSTRIES as against the present name of INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRIES.
• Alongside making exchanges the company must make wire less equipments too of various kinds for the global market.
• There must be increased synergy between ITI and other public sectors like BEL and ISRO.
• An INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TELECOM must be established inside the premises.
• Finally the Government must ensure that the CMD of ITI is a telecom graduate and has vast experience in wired and wireless telecom along with managerial degree or expertise.