Each BSNL employee attending a customer phone call gives you another number. Its a monopolistic crime of un-imaginable proporations against indian broadband users. If there are a lot of people who feel the same please consider launching a movement to surrender BSNL phonelines. Convince your relatives to surrender a BSNL phoneline and serve the nation.

It is criminal to support inefficiency of BSNL through public money. Please consider writing to your elected representatives in favor of privatization of BSNL.

After visiting BSNL exchange 6 times and finally managing to get a broadband connection at my parent's place in Yamunanagar. One and a half months later I am still trying to get the authentication details to BSNL's portal for viewing dataflow http://bbservice.bsnl.in. Not that the damn site works anyway.

Update:
Interestingly amongst BSNL+MTNL customers some 4.4 million(100K/month approx.) plus wired phone lines were surrendered by their customers between Apr-2006 to Feb 2008.
Source DOT Network Status Feb 2008 .The same has been uploaded at my site because GOI sites have this annoying habit of removing content so if you are unable to access the previous link try this one DOT Network Status Report 2008

Are India's opposition politicians/policy makers(and most of the media covering them) blind or deaf or statistically challenged or just that demagoguery is their only religion. Oppose everything(politicians), or objectively analyze everything(media), understand nothing and refuse to ask the real questions, public interest and a 'free' market economy be damned.

The dichotomy of trying to run a market economy with a monetary policy suitable for socialist era is explained brilliantly by Ajay Shah
<Quote>
India is in a big mess on monetary policy. The attempt that is under way consists of pegging the rupee to the dollar at a time when the dollar has dropped sharply. Dollar prices of many commodities have risen since producers do not like being short-changed with the same number of dollars. Holding Rs 40 a dollar intact, the global increase in commodity prices has been imported into India.
</Quote>

Long ago in early nineties the first gulf war oil shocks caused a meltdown in an in-efficient license quota raj riddled indian economy(read no one bought anything from us) resulting in a balance of payments crisis. That was then, between now and then the economy was put on a path of economic liberalization but riddled with roadblocks, speed breakers and toll booths just like our highways. The politics in India is so bad that any political party in opposition goes on to oppose the same policies they implemented while they were a part of executive( in power ).

The monetary policy followed by India is best described by this dialog from the bollywood film Rang De Basanti "ek paon past mein, ek paon future mein, isiliye to aaj pe moot rahe hain (we have one leg in past, one leg in future, that is why we are pissing on the present)".

BSNL employees were seen in a procession under some red colored communist banners on MG Road in Bangalore today demanding bonus. Apparently they didn't couldn't hear the silent and sometimes verbose taunts of the members of the common public(including yours truly) as to why they don't deserve a bonus. There doesn't seem to be a reason for strike in 2007 in India. With telecom sector booming, if these employees are actually producing any useful output, then any of the private sector telcos should be happy to hire them right!!!.
Message from this blog to BSNL employees
"TAKE A HIKE"

No force can be used for acquiring land: Kalam

I am increasingly beginning to feel that not only I have nothing in common with the man on the street but also I do not wish to identify myself with the increasingly tyrannical state committing crimes against weak and powerless in 'my' name. Violence against peaceful people through instruments of state for 'greater good' is un-acceptable in any modern democracy. The rights of the smallest minority of an individual shouldn't be crushed in the name of development, industrialization, community and other greater good schemes of the powerful.