At home in tech & politics

CHANDRASEKHAR'S BPL DAYS TAUGHT HIM HOW INNOVATION CAN COLLAPSE UNDER BAD POLICY; HIS POLITICAL CAREER SHOWED HIM HOW TO FIX IT

- RISHI RAJ

WHEN RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR (RC) was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2006, he told this writer the reason behind his entry into politics. The techpreneur, who once helmed the thriving BPL Communications, didn't mince words. "I had a flourishing business until it was all destroyed by the 2001 backdoor entry of Reliance Infocomm into the cellular telephony business," he said. The controversy stemmed from Reliance's licence for wireless in local loop—a limited mobility technology—which it leveraged to roll out full-fledged mobile services, which proved disastrous for incumbents like BPL.

For RC, it was a brutal lesson. "That's when I realised it's very important to be in public life to help shape public policy," he told this writer. Nearly two decades later, as he assumes the role of Kerala's BJP state president, that conviction doesn't seem to have wavered.