In her book Telecom Wars, Deepali Gupta tells the colourful history of India's telecom industry with skill and substance

The telecom sector is considered the poster child of the transformative powers of the reforms of 1991

- Sundeep Khanna

The idea that you could walk into a neighbourhood store, buy a phone, insert a SIM card and start calling family and friends within hours would have been the stuff of science fiction in pre-1990s India. Which is why the telecom sector is considered the poster child of the transformative powers of the reforms of 1991, which threw open a moribund government monopoly to the private sector.

But a phone in every Indian's hand isn't a story of a smooth and steady transition. It is a tale of bitter business rivalries, some wise and some inept government handling, fierce manoeuvrings in courts, and a whole host of characters who played significant parts in the decades-long drama. It is also a story of the rise and fall of many entrepreneurs who cut their teeth in this most demanding of industries, culminating in a rank outsider, Sunil Mittal, emerging as the champion of champions. Above all, it's a tale which wasn't fully captured in any book so far.