The Government has assigned the additional charge of BSNL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) to senior Department of Telecom officer Robert J Ravi, following the denial of extension to outgoing CMD P.K. Purwar. Official sources confirmed that Purwar, who had been serving as BSNL CMD since July 2019, had his extension request rejected by the Department of Telecom (DoT).
The Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) approved the DoT’s proposal for “non-extension of tenure” of BSNL CMD Pravin Kumar Purwar beyond July 14. Consequently, the ACC endorsed the DoT’s proposal for the “entrustment of additional charge of the post of CMD BSNL, along with CMD MTNL, and CMD BBNL” to Ravi. He will hold these positions for six months, from July 15, 2024, to January 14, 2025, or until further orders, whichever comes first.
Ravi, an Indian Telecom Service officer with 34 years of experience, faces the challenge of accelerating the rollout of 4G services and arresting the decline in BSNL’s subscriber base. This marks Ravi’s second stint at BSNL, having previously served as an additional general manager at the state-run firm for about six years.
During Purwar’s tenure, the government provided three revival packages totaling more than Rs 3 lakh crore to help BSNL compete with Reliance Jio, Airtel, and others in rolling out 4G and 5G services. The first package of Rs 69,000 crore was approved in October 2019, with about Rs 51,000-52,000 crore allocated to BSNL. Now, Ravi will be tasked with building on these efforts and steering BSNL towards greater stability and growth.
