case study competition in the newspaper industry of india

• Mass Communication
• Breaking News: A Case Study of the Indian Media Industry

Historical Evolution of the Indian News Media

By most accounts, the Indian Media Industry is one of the world’s most diverse and vibrant in addition to being largely free and fair . The Indian Media has had a long and chequered history starting from the pre-Independence days and including the post independence and the socialist days and extending to the post liberalization and the consequent explosion in the number of media outlets.

Indeed, if not anything, liberalization of the Indian Economy in the 1990s has had the effect of liberating Indian mindsets and exposing them to Western modes of consumption and lifestyles. This in turn had an impact on the way Indians consumed new and the result was that the Indian Media landscape changed dramatically with the advent of Satellite Television which was further boosted by the emergence of the Internet in the New Millennium.

Thus, the Indian Media has come a long way and is now in a position where it has moved beyond news reporting and has taken on the mantle of agenda setting as well as steering the direction of governmental policies.

While at times, many media outlets seem partisan and polarized, it is also the case that the Indian Media by and large have been independent and unbiased in their news coverage.

Notable Aspects of the Indian News Media Industry

A distinctive feature of the Indian Media Industry is the resilience and indeed, flourishing of print media outlets.

In other words, newspapers have not only withstood the vagaries of time, but India is the world’s largest market for print media wherein unlike the West, where newspaper readership is disappearing and dwindling, the situation in India is the opposite, where it is actually growing.

This speaks volumes about the composition of the Indian Consumer base wherein readers want the analysis and the spin as much as they enjoy the breaking news phenomenon of mainstream Television media.

Indeed, no discussion on the Indian Media is complete without referring to the trend of Real Time and Instantaneous reporting or the Breaking News factor wherein viewers at any point in the day and at any instant of the news cycle can tune in and be updated on the latest happenings in the country as well as the world.

As the title of this case study indicates, Breaking News is perhaps the one singular defining characteristic of the New Media such as TV and Online where news nuts are constantly fed on a diet of uninterrupted live coverage of events around the world as they happen.

Some Worrying Developments

Talking about online media, the profusion of online media outlets concomitant with the Internet Revolution means that the Indian Media houses found another way or a medium to reach out to the consumers.

Indeed, if not anything, online outlets indicate the Third Wave of change as far as the Indian Media are concerned with Print and TV being the first and second waves respectively. Having said that, one must also caution the readers that the advent of the Internet and the Smartphone also resulted in what is known as Fake News or Post Truth coverage wherein facts and data are given the short shrift and whatever one wants to believe in passes off as news.

PESTEL Analysis

Among all the external forces that impact the Indian Media Industry, this is perhaps the most significant in terms of how it forces media houses to either fall in line or be left out. To explain, governments worldwide seek to influence news coverage and engage in media manipulation, and India is no exception.

Indeed, whichever party is in power, they seek to manage the media to change the way in which voters perceive them by persuading media houses to toe the party line. Moreover, in the present times, there are very few neutral media houses left with most of them allied to one particular political dispensation or the other.

In addition, the fact that politicians can also invoke national security concerns to influence news reporting means that this aspect exerts a strong influence in the way the Indian Media Industry works .

The changing economic composition of the Indian Consumer base means that concomitant changes in media consumption lead to this factor exerting a moderate to strong influence in the way the Indian Media Industry works.

For instance, as mentioned earlier, the liberalization of the Indian Economy in the 1990s lead to consumerism taking root in the country. In turn, this changed the way in which news is consumed and the emergence of the Great Indian Middle Class meant that trends such as Page 3 coverage of social dos and parties hosted by the rich and famous replaced coverage of poverty and inequality.

Indeed, Indian Media houses, like their Western counterparts became heavily profit driven leading to packaging of content as products that can be consumed instead of news being reported.

Technological

By Western standards, the Indian Media Industry stays on the technological curve as can be seen from the latest tech innovations finding their way into newsrooms. While in earlier decades, the Indian Media was slow to adapt to changing technological trends, in recent years, they are ahead of the curve as far as technology is concerned. In addition, the emergence of the Internet and the Smartphone revolutions meant that newer technologies upended the news media forcing them to either adapt or be left behind.

Indeed, Indian consumers also play a part in this by migrating to those newspapers and TV channels as well as Internet Sites that are technologically advanced thereby ensuring that the Indian Media has to be tech savvy to remain in contention.

Environmental

While Environmental concerns used to play an important role in the Indian Media Industry especially as far as newspapers were concerned since they are printed on paper, the advent of TV and the Internet have minimized the extent to which this factor can influence the way the Indian Media houses operate.

In addition to the political forces impacting the Indian Media Industry, legal problems in terms of defamation suits and other legal actions are now routine leading to Indian media houses either brazing it out in the face of legal threats or simply not inviting legal action by playing it safe.

Indeed, the tendency to file legal cases as well as the weak defamation laws in place means that most media houses are nonchalant or even brazen in their coverage under the assumption and the comfort that it is easy to get away and hence, they have nothing to fear.

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Power of suppliers.

The Indian Media Industry is dependent on a wide variety of suppliers including paper suppliers in case of print media, stringers, and video journalists in case of TV, and web hosting services in case of digital .

Considering the fact that such a diverse base of suppliers cannot exert much power in the absence of organized supplier groups, the power of suppliers is indeed moderate at best and weak at worst.

Having said that, some media houses are indeed under pressure from key suppliers such as printers and content producers as can be seen from the numerous instances of arm twisting by suppliers as mentioned as well as TV distributors and channel and cable operators.

Power of Buyers

In any media industry worldwide, there is always intense competition from such outlets for the eyeballs and the hearts and minds of the readers and viewers. The Indian Media Industry is no exception and what is more remarkable is that the viewers are spoiled for choice since there are potentially unlimited channels as well as newspapers in addition to online news outlets.

Indeed, it can be said that among all the forces that exert influence over the Indian Media Industry, this is the strongest since buyers hold the power or the TV remote which gives them major influence over the type of content that is being beamed.

This is evidenced by the near scramble and the mad rush to garner TRPs (Television Rating Points) as well as subscriber figures for print media as media houses compete with each other in a bid for market leadership and dominance.

Competitive Rivalry

Continuing the point made above, there is intense competitive rivalry as far as the Indian Media Industry is concerned since the number of media outlets across the spectrum means that they do have to be on their toes for market space.

Indeed, perhaps the Indian Media Industry is unique among the worldwide peers as far as the intensity of market rivalry is concerned. This is because of the diverse linguistic and regional variations apart from the English and the Hindi Media which means that establishing a Pan India presence for media outlets requires immense resources not to leave out the complexity of managing such ventures and conglomerates.

Thus, taken together with the power of the consumers, competitive rivalry ensures that the Indian Media space is very choosy about the choices available to the consumers.

Ease of Entry and Exit

While the Entry barriers are quite low since it does not take much upfront investment to launch a newspaper, a TV channel, or an online outlet, as mentioned earlier, the intense competition ensures that only the ones with the most resources and the organizational depth needed to manage such complexity indicates that while it is easy to setup a media outlet at the same time, it is very difficult to survive the neck tight competition.

Threat of Substitutes

Indian news consumers have a variety of options before them as far as choosing between media channels and outlets are concerned .

Having said that, there are no ready substitutes which mean that established media houses have immense clout over their consumer and viewer base. Indeed, this is the paradox at the heart of the Indian Media Industry wherein large media houses are virtual monopolies whereas startup and upcoming outlets do have to be innovative and inventive to simply survive in the media jungle.

This is the reason why many outlets do enter the market but fall by the wayside as the Indian reader or viewer is highly brand loyal.

As can be seen from the preceding analysis, the Indian Media and in particular, the Indian News Media is at inflection point where the choices it makes now would determine the future directions of the sector.

While intense competition for readers and viewers through subscription figures and TRPs as well as eyeballs is good, it should not lead to a situation where in the pursuit of such profit making activities, facts are given the go by.

In other words, the blind pursuit of profits must not be at the expense of its main reason for existence which is being a gatekeeper of truth and disseminator of valuable news and information.

Indeed, as discussed in the section related to worrying developments, the Indian News Media seems to be failing the basic function of being a custodian of democracy by reporting news and views as the demands of fairness and impartiality are concerned. Instead, what passes off for news is simply advertorials where paid news dominates.

This is indeed a sad state of affairs given the rich history and legacy of the pioneers of Indian Journalism. To conclude, it is the hope and the work done by the Indian Media Industry that should ultimately keep it going despite recent trends that indicate otherwise.

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The article is Written and Reviewed by Management Study Guide Content Team . MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider . To Know more, click on About Us . The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.

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4th AIMA- ICRC Case Writing Competition & Conference, 2024

09 may 2024, contact details.

Dr. Anuja Pandey , Head-AIMA India Case Research Centre (ICRC) Ph. 011-47673000 Ext: 709, Email:  [email protected]

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Overview AIMA- India Case Research Centre (ICRC) is pleased to announce the 4th edition of Case Writing Competition and Conference (ICRC -CWCC). This competition aims to encourage and promote the development of high-quality India focused teaching case material that brings Indian ethos in managing the business. The business world has changed significantly in the past few years, particularly during the pandemic. The Case Writing Competition and Conference aims to capture the changing industry trends, technological changes, digital economy, sustainability, survival, and several other market requirements in the form of teaching cases.

About The Case Study Competition & Conference

AIMA, the apex body of management in India, organises several summits and competitions every year. The Case Writing Competition & Conference (CWCC) is a refreshing, stimulating and a learning journey for every case author/case writer. 

 This journey is extremely rewarding in terms of competency/skill enhancement, exposure to industry and real problems and challenges faced by organisations, expert and peer review on authored cases, mentoring & publication opportunities and finally the chance to win the competition. 

AIMA – India Case Research Centre is actively supported by industry and academia. Some of the top industry leaders are on its advisory board, and ICRC also enjoys rich academic support from eminent faculty from institutions across the world.

ICRC has published several teaching case studies and Industry best practices cases developed in ICRC banner, apart from a collection of India centric case studies from collaborating institutions like IIMB, ISB and several others. ICRC is a growing case collection repository. All cases submitted in this case writing competition & conference will be considered for publication in ICRC.

Potential Topics / Areas

Cases may be focused on any area that relates to a business or organisation, and economy. Topics may be from the disciplines of marketing, general management, human resources, economics, finance/accounting, logistics, operations, business policy, ethics, entrepreneurship, CSR, Sustainability, digital transformation, analytics, strategy, technology others and more specifically focusing on sectors such as 

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• AIMA ICRC will hand hold by giving support for case review, editing and publishing.
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Eligibility.

Submission of cases and teaching notes are invited from academics, practitioners, or academic/practitioner teams.

Case studies and associated material must:

• be presented in English, include a case study and teaching notes
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Cases that do not meet these conditions will be excluded from the competition.

Note: Multi-media presentation of cases is acceptable. But all multimedia cases should include a detailed teaching note.

Free example case:

One of our classic business ethics cases is available for free until the end of January. To download a copy, please visit  https://www.caseresearchaima.in/

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All submissions must:.

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The case competition is an annual event hosted online, in partnership with a leading organisation of India and abroad. We are encouraging eminent faculty/case authors from Universities/ B-schools and leading journals/publishers to participate in this competition.

 The competition aims to encourage and promote the development of high-quality India focused case studies & teaching notes which dwell on issues affecting business, society, economy and emerging international issues. Case authors are encouraged to develop case studies using multimedia and innovative pedagogy.

 More than 25 reviewers from different business schools and universities have been invited to review the submitted cases. 

The top-quality cases from the case competition will be exclusively mentored and developed by the ICRC team of mentors and published in India Case Research Centre Portal. These cases will later be marketed and distributed across to all B-schools and Corporates. 

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Please note that we will not be accepting any paper submissions. All participants need to register at the ICRC portal and use the same login credentials for submissions. Please pay close attention to the fact that any reference to the author and/or his institution anywhere in the text must be removed.

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Digital Transition in Newspapers in India: A Pilot Study

This pilot study situates itself at the intersection of global trends in news and journalism, and emergent practises of legacy print media in India. Our aim is to explore how legacy print newspapers are transitioning to the online space. The study will address questions in two thematic clusters: 1) the work of journalism, and 2) how the emergence of the digital, both as a source of news, and the medium of distribution, is shaping the work of newspaper journalists.

Introduction

This pilot study situates itself at the intersection of global trends in news and journalism, and emergent practises of legacy print media in India. Our aim is to explore how legacy print newspapers are transitioning to the online space. The study will address questions in two thematic clusters: 1) the work of journalism, and 2) how the emergence of the digital, both as a source of news, and the medium of distribution, is shaping the work of newspaper journalists, which has expanded to include various functions particular to the digital environment. And two, newsroom practices, which focus on the different modalities of convergence emerging in Indian newsrooms, and the organisational re-engineering that is being attempted in order to do journalism in a space where professional editors and journalists no longer have dominance with respect to the production and distribution of content.

News Culture in Transition

The influx of digital technology combined with advancements in the field of telecommunications has had a disruptive effect on the global news industry. This year’s World Press Trends survey, released last month, reports that at least 40 per cent of global internet users read newspapers online and that in most developed countries, readership on digital platforms has surpassed that in print(WAN-INFRA, 2016). However, while revenue from print is said to be declining, it still makes up for more than 92 per cent of all newspapers revenues. At the same time, circulation increased by 4.9 per cent globally, mostly owing to the 7.8 per cent growth in numbers from India, China and other parts of Asia which made up 62% of the global average daily print unit circulation in 2015. This growth, the report suggests, is a function of low prices and expanding literacy in these markets.

While newspapers are a thriving industry in India, newspaper organisations and journalists are adopting new technology in order to remain relevant in a fast changing environment (Chattopadhyay 2012, Panda 2014). One one hand, they are swept up in the disruptive shifts in the global media economy, while on the other, they are in a unique position to convert this disruption into an opportunity.

The WPT report also notes, perhaps to the relief of those struggling to find a sustainable revenue model for digital news, that revenue from paid digital circulation has increased 30 per cent in 2015 and that one in five readers from the countries studied are willing to pay for online news. Revenue from digital advertising on the other hand, is growing at the slower pace of 7.3 per cent.

The report points out that there is a huge opportunity in mobile growth, with more than 70 per cent of readers in countries like USA, UK, Australia and Canada reading newspapers via a mobile device. Similar trends can be seen in India, as internet usage here is increasingly shaped by mobile growth (Google India Report, 2015). The fact that many digital-born news sites are adopting a mobile-first strategy (Sen and Nielsen, 2016) reflects this. More recently, Hindustan Times has hired a mobile editor to build a team of over 700 journalists specialising in mobile journalism.

Earlier this year the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism released a report on digital news start-ups in India (Sen and Nielsen, 2016), which explores how digital-born news start-ups are developing new editorial priorities, funding models and distribution strategies for news in the Indian digital media market. The study, which included observing the practices of The Quint, Scroll, The Wire, Khabar Lahariya, Daily Hunt and InShorts, concluded that India was not short of noteworthy experiments in journalism and online news. It also found that more news publishers are adopting mobile-first approaches, given that internet use in India is increasingly through mobile devices. More relevant to this study, the report established that social media has emerged as a tool for distribution and also stated that digital news start-ups are turning their focus to Hindi and local language content, in order to serve new audiences.

Studying the Effects of Convergence

Their digital transition can be witnessed on two counts: publishing with digital and publishing for digital. The first involves a shift towards using the digital in the process of sourcing and publishing news. Workflow is managed by advanced content management systems, news articles contain multimedia and interactivity that require technical expertise, and the web and social media are increasingly becoming a reliable source of primary and secondary information for journalists. Second, publishing for the highly competitive comes with it’s own challenges. Distribution and consumption of news is increasingly being carried out on digital platforms, fostering a culture of interdependence that impacts news providers in previously unforeseen ways. As the decision to prioritise their digital products take hold, newsrooms themselves evolve to contain a diverse range of skill and expertise.

According to the 2015 Trends in Newsroom report, editors and senior reporters in newsrooms across the globe are experimenting with new ways of storytelling using podcasts, chat apps, automation, virtual reality and gamification, as well as dealing with new challenges with respect to source protection in the face of increased surveillance and intermediaries like Facebook and Google and reporting on culturally sensitive subjects(World Editors Forum, 2015).

The dynamics of these shifts in different countries may be shaped by several factors including the availability of human and financial resources, and pace of adoption of new technologies by the readers. In markets like Japan, complexities of the existing newspaper trade in the country act as a deterrent to technological change (Villi and Hayashi, 2014). Given the pace at which the media ecology of the web evolves; this transition is an ongoing process characterised by experiments in business, marketing and editorial strategies. A good example of such an experiment is last week’s decision by leading Indian newspapers, to make their content unavailable to those consumers who had ad-blocking software installed.

Such a shift also demands that we ask new questions of news in journalism. In his paper on studying computational and algorithmic journalism, C. W. Anderson tackles how sociologists and media scholars can frame inquiries related to journalism, given its computational turn (Anderson, 2012). He suggests using the added lens of ‘technology’ and ‘institutions and fields’ to Michael Schudson’s (Schudson, 2010) typology on the sociology of news which approaches the study of news from economic, political, cultural and organisational approaches. While most of these are self-explanatory, by institutions and fields, he refers to the ‘field of journalism’ as a whole and the different actors that shape it. This frame will examine the cultural power struggles that occur within the field and the way these struggles shape newsroom practises and news content (Anderson, 2012). Anderson adds that it is imperative to understand that the dynamics of the field of journalism are closely connected to nearby fields which now include computer science, web development and digital advertising.

We adopted a similar approach for our study. We began our inquiry by asking questions about how the emergence of digital technologies and the Internet are changing the process of producing news and how news organisations are rising up to the challenges posed by the digital space: what technologies and software are being used in the production and distribution of news in India, how are these technologies and softwares influencing the process of news production and distribution, how are the everyday practices and roles with respect to journalistic and editorial work transforming with their transition to digital, how do media agencies conceptualise and measure online viewership, and how do these metrics impact journalistic and editorial practices.

These questions led us to explore how leading legacy print newspapers across three language markets - English, Hindi and Malayalam - are making the transition from producing news stories exclusively for print to producing multimedia stories for the highly competitive and and diverse media ecology of the web.

Research Plan

As already mentioned, the study is divided into two thematic clusters: work of journalism and newsroom practises .

The former will include asking questions related to strategies and skills of information gathering and validation, methods and tools of communicating a news story in an online-first (or simultaneously print and online) environment, personal engagements with audiences via social media websites, new methods of performance assessment and sources and practices of learning and capacity building.

The latter will explore how choice/emphasis of content and reportage is being re-shaped by the digital environment by inquiring into changes in editorial responsibilities, dynamics of decision making, news-making workflows, technical diversity of the work force, and interaction between news producers within an increasingly convergent newsroom.

This being a pilot study, we will conduct intensive interviews with journalists, editors, and management personnel associated with one newspaper in each language market: 1) Hindustan Times in English, 2) Dainik Jagran in Hindi, and 3) Malayala Manorama in Malayalam. We selected these three languages due to their large market sizes and geographic distribution, and selected the newspapers for either their pioneering efforts in adopting digital technologies, or their dominant position in terms of circulation.

The research team includes Zeenab Aneez and Sumandro Chattapadhyay from CIS, and RISJ Director of Research Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. Vibodh Parthasarathi from CCMG, Jamia Millia Islamia, will contribute to the study as an advisor.

Anderson, Christopher W. 2013. ‘Towards a Sociology of Computational and Algorithmic Journalism’. New Media & Society 15 (7): 1005-1021.

Bajaj, Ambrish. 2016. “Indian news sites lost 100 million page views and $500K in three weeks - and had no clue why” http://factordaily.com/indian-news-sites-lost-100-million-page-views-500k-three-weeks-no-clue/ .

Chattopadhyay, Saayan. 2012. ‘Online Journalism and Election Reporting in India’. Journalism Practice 6 (3): 337-48. doi:10.1080/17512786.2012.663596.

Coddington, Mark. 2014. ‘Defending Judgment and Context in “original Reporting”: Journalists’ Construction of Newswork in a Networked Age’. Journalism 15 (6): 678–95.

– 2015. ‘The Wall Becomes a Curtain: Revisiting Journalism’s News–business Boundary’. Boundaries of Journalism: Professionalism, Practices, and Participation . New York: Routledge. [forthcoming]. Accessed from http://markcoddington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CoddingtonFINAL.NewReferences.docx .

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Diakopoulos, Nicholas, Mor Naaman, and Funda Kivran-Swaine. 2010. ‘Diamonds in the Rough: Social Media Visual Analytics for Journalistic Inquiry’. In Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), 2010 IEEE Symposium on, 115–22. IEEE. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5652922 .

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Royal, Cindy. 2010. ‘The Journalist as Programmer: A Case Study of The New York Times Interactive News Technology Department.’ Presented at the International Symposium in Online Journalism, The University of Texas at Austin, April 20. Accessed from https://online.journalism.utexas.edu/2010/papers/Royal10.pdf .

Schudson, Michael. 2010. ‘Political Observatories, Databases * News in the Emerging Ecology of Public Information’. Daedalus . 139(2): 100–109. doi:10.1162/daed.2010.139.2.100.

Scott, Ben. 2005. ‘A Contemporary History of Digital Journalism.’ Television & New Media . February. 6(1): 89-126. doi: 10.1177/1527476403255824.

Sen, Arijit and Nielsen, Rasmus Kleis. 2016. Digital Journalism Start-Ups in India . Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Accessed from: http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Digital%20Journalism%20Start-ups%20in%20India_0.pdf .

‘Nine top #TrendsinNewsrooms’. 2015. WAN-IFRA blog. http://blog.wan-ifra.org/2015/06/02/nine-top-trendsinnewsrooms-of-2015 .

Villi, M., and K. Hayashi. 2014. ‘“The Mission Is to Keep This Industry Intact”: Digital Transition in the Japanese Newspaper Industry’. In 64th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Seattle, WA, 22-26 May.

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The Future of Newspapers in the Digital Age

Julien Sueres

International & Online Journalism

The future of newspapers in the digital age based on two case studies, discussed from an international perspective and exploring ethical, social and professional aspects of the issue.

Since the advent of internet the means of communication have greatly expanded, completely transforming the world of news. Journalism is faced with new challenges while the news consumers are ever finding new ways to get informed. An article in The Guardian recently reported how “newspapers face up to the ad crunch in print and digital” (Sweney, 2015), reminding everyone in the industry how uncertain the future of newspapers is at the moment.

Publishers and news outlets have long been experimenting strategies to survive the digital revolution. The ability to monetise news, which once were under a certain monopoly, has become a source of incertitude and struggle. The implications could go far and wide within the industry: in terms of jobs for journalists, audience for outlets or even quality and ethics for journalism in general.

This essay will examine the development of digital international news from the perspectives of two British newspapers, The Guardian and The Sun. In the first part I will look at issues related to the digital transition which both newspapers had to undergo. It will highlight the differences between web and print in terms of writing as well as content. In the second part I will turn toward the concept of citizen journalism, the evolution of news and what it means in terms of ethics. In the third part I will contrast the two different strategies of The Sun and The Guardian, in terms of ownership and revenues. As the digital transition of newspapers points toward the adoption of similar new practices in terms of reporting, the ability to generate revenues also seems to depend on adopting the right strategy.

Both the The Guardian and The Sun are newspapers which existed before the start of the digital revolution and had to go through a transition in order to establish an online presence. In terms of writing both have kept their respective editorial lines while adapting to the web. Also while it is accepted that “good writing is good writing wherever and however it is published” (Hicks, Adams, Gilbert, & Holmes, 2008, p. 132) differences still apply between print and online news. One of the reasons being the readers’ volatility. Titles, style of writing and content were all important in print papers but it must now be adapted to the user interface of online websites. For example “neither excessive scrolling nor clicking is regarded as desirable in terms of design and usability” (Hicks, Adams, Gilbert, & Holmes, 2008, p. 132). The web has opened new possibilities in terms of content for both the readers and the writers. “The potential to customize content means readers may select only the content that appeals to them” (LAZAROIU, 2009, p. 155).

This digital adaptation has multiplied the ways to tell a story. As compared to print journalism, internet and its “media convergence, or cross platform journalism, requires its practitioners to posses multimedia skills” (Foreman, 2009, p. 364), which were not necessarily used before. In terms of content, while it has given place for new ways to spread stories, and this is particularly true in terms of international news, newspapers are now able to reach a bigger audience out of national borders and to adapt storytelling to the context, thanks to a wider range of multimedia tools.

Also The Guardian and the Sun have had traditional differences of editorial lines, the adaptation of their journalism to the web is marked by a broader use of multimedia. For example, looking at the recent Russian plane crash in Egypt and the way both papers covered it online, one may draw several conclusions:

1- Online editions allow for a broader use of tools. Both The Guardian (Luhn & Khalil, 2015) and The Sun (NATHAN, 2015) made use of embedded videos, pictures and even digital mapping.

2- Both papers are aware of the more international characters of their websites and stories are adapted to it.

3- However, both papers retain distinctive approaches as The Sun covered it in a more succinct way, with a feel that the journalist was writing the story from the UK making use of crowdsourcing and content curating. In the opposite, The Guardian feels like it had a more traditional approach as it covered the story with two journalists, one base in Moscow and the other in Egypt.

This difference of approaching international news actually takes us to the question of the differences between print and online foreign correspondence. Traditional national newspapers, such as The Guardian and The Sun, have realised the international potential of internet. “Studies comparing hard copy and online editions of mainstream newspapers have discovered that more international news is carried by the online version” (Williams, 2011, p. 161). However, this does not necessarily mean that our national newspapers will cover everything and anything international online. “The geography of online content still reflect the imbalances of the traditional mainstream media; web technology has not drastically changed what is reported as international news” (Williams, 2011, p. 161). In other words, newspapers have increased the number of international news online, but what is covered seems to remain on similar lines with print. The competitive character of captivating an online audience might be among the reasons. Also, covering only a certain type of stories seems an attempt to maintain a national identity and style. Also The Guardian might have had this tradition of covering international events in depth and details, the superficial covering of The Sun really seems to show this need to feed online readers, even at the cost of quality reporting.

As implied in the previous paragraphs, “change brought on by electronic media threatens the viability of traditional ways of reporting the news but offers promising new ways of disseminating information” (LAZAROIU, 2009, p. 157). In addition to that, the web has also given birth to citizen journalism. Technically it means that everyone with access to internet can get involved in a story, “global news can be produced from anywhere and by anyone” (Williams, 2011, p. 43). Internet has this way to get everyone connected. Local reporters, officials and non-government websites can all act as sources of foreign news (Williams, 2011, p. 43). In fact proximity to the event often places citizen journalists at the forefront of a story, the Tunisian blogger, Lina ben Mhenn, behind ‘The Tunisian girls’ blog gained the statue of “a virtual newsroom for foreign journalists” (Hoffmann , 2013, p. 170) during the Tunisian revolution.

“With its convergence of prose, video, still images, and audio, the web offers exciting opportunities” (Foreman, 2009, p. 12) but citizen journalism does not come without its array of ethical challenges. Issues such as post first, verify later, post first, correct later and the lack of editing on many blogs (Foreman, 2009, p. 12) can really affect the general quality of how stories are told. Professionally, it can “also lead to a decrease in the capacity and time reporters have to assess the veracity and quality of the information” (Williams, 2011, p. 168). Events can go viral and around the world really fast on internet. Very often “journalists have to learn new ranges of skills to be able to do their job — and some of them are not necessarily things that their predecessors would recognize as being journalism” (Holmes, Hadwin, & Mottershead, 2013, p. 210).

Going back to the Russian plane story, both The Sun and The Guardian have used a variety of tweets and videos to complement the main articles. The Guardian even makes use of an Instagram picture from the account of a Russian user who died in the crash. Interestingly, a new feature added by the web is the ability to request the reader to share stories. While it would have been impossible to ask readers to share a printed newspaper before the digital age, it is now common practice to place Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest sharing buttons at the bottom of an article. Both newspapers commonly make use of such digital features. Even if “social networking is primarily a place to meet friends, it has a growing news media value” (BENTLEY, 2011, p. 115). Since the advent of social networks, “reading habits and the way people obtain information are changing” (Tremblay, 2015, p. 144), while the “democratisation of media gives each of us access to information and a voice” (Hoffmann , 2013, p. 234). Online news, citizen journalism and writing platforms, blogging in particular, have provided alternative outlets, even to the discontented audience (BENTLEY, 2011, p. 113).

In fact, it has also been argued that citizen journalism is not necessarily a threat to traditional journalism but more of a complement (BENTLEY, 2011, p. 104). Within the web universe “journalists and audiences interact on the same level, as co-communicators who together negotiate the meaning of the news” (Robinson, 2011, p. 159). While it is true that “new technologies have swept away journalists’ monopoly of international news gathering” (Williams, 2011, p. 168), “we still need reporters on the ground to ask and answer questions….networks of witnesses, participants and experts add to the news in ways not possible before” (Carvin, 2013).

It seems obvious that journalists may not be able to compete any more for content creation and quantity as the number of blogs and websites ever increases, However, “there will be a bigger place for the journalist who helps media consumer find the information they want” (BENTLEY, 2011, p. 116). Indeed such an overwhelming amount of information may point toward a growing need for “professionally compiled digests” (Williams, 2011, p. 171).

After having briefly looked at the digital evolution of newspapers such as The Guardian and The Sun, many elements point toward the fact that both have developed similarities in terms of practices, storytelling and audience reach. Now, I would like to look at how both papers compare in terms of revenues and the ability to monetise news.

The digital era has brought considerable changes to the way people interact with news and “the tide is flowing inexorably from old media towards the Internet, with a force that media managements cannot control” (Curran, 2010, p. 468). The mass access to online news also had effects on the content, in terms of format, length and even quality. Popular news is not anymore necessarily the most detailed and researched piece. In fact, short and entertaining is often a requirement to go viral. “The modern media Internet is filled with this kind of content, and some would argue (à la B uzzFeed) that this is the natural, current end-state evolution of easily monetizable media content”(Hyrkin, 2015).

The source of revenues in the news industry has also shifted as “advertising expenditures on the Internet overtook that of television in Denmark in 2008, followed by Britain in January to June 2009” (Curran, 2010, p. 468). However, even online revenues are not guaranteed. Regional studies in the Manchester area, UK, have demonstrated that “newspapers are caught in a revenue trap composed of decreasing advertising revenue coupled with declining circulation revenue “ (HILL, 2009, p. 123). While some have argued that the coupling of print and online edition could significantly improve results as per the advertising power of the web (HILL, 2009, p. 123), it is not always the case. As Sweney (2015) explained in his recent article, even if print advertisements remain the “lifeblood of income” it faces a clouded future.

In terms of strategies, The Guardian is betting on its future by having open access to its content, with no paywall and a focus on developing its online audience. While running at incredible annual losses, the paper also faces the fact that out of its 8 million daily users, two third are not from UK. The Guardian seems to see Ads as old fashion but it has been able to create other sources of revenues such as mobile applications or events organising. In contrast, The Sun has had a paywall strategy from 2013 to 2015, in an attempt to monetise on the 30 million users, it had back in 2012. Unfortunately, the paywall resulted in a huge loss of readers, falling to 117 thousand shortly after its implementation. Such difficult results prompted the recent announcement to scrap the paywall (Sun, 2015). Such a U-turn in just over two years shows the unviable character of paywalls as a strategy.

This revenue issue has become almost a trend in the industry and ultimately results in media ownership concentration constantly increasing (Tremblay, 2015, p. 145) and “power within the international newsgathering system becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer organisations” (Williams, 2011, p. 169).

The issue also affects journalists directly. Even if “the internet has a vast potential for reporting, websites are not yet profitable enough to support large news staffs on their own” (Foreman, 2009, p. 363). Traditional news outlets attracted an audience to newspapers or broadcast which they rented out to advertisers. “If online users cannot be persuaded to pay for access to news on the web,” (Foreman, 2009, p. 363) then a new business model need to be created.

Recent studies in Canada have demonstrated similar results. While some outlets try to bet on independent journalism through online subscriptions, others have turned to more convergent strategies. But the trend remains identical with a free digital shift, the game is increasingly “iPublish or perish” (Tremblay, 2015, p. 148). As seen in the example of The Sun, paywalls are not viable. A recent study (Franklin, 2014) has highlighted the following issues with paywalls: it represents only 10% of media companies’ revenues and while not viable, it is also seemed undemocratic to restrict news to only those who can afford it.

The first part of this essay has demonstrated the broad impact of the digital revolution on journalism and newspapers. It has affected all levels of the industry, from the writing to the multiplication of tools to tell stories. The democratising effect has also transformed the relations between news consumers and producers, giving rise to citizen journalism.

Both The Guardian and The Sun have adapted in similar ways to this digital transition, while being able to retain some identity. However, it is in terms of monetising news that both papers have differentiated from each other. Ultimately, The Sun had to give up its unsustainable paywall strategy. On the other hand, the open access of The Guardian is far from a sustainable business model but it does have the merit of keeping readers. In terms of content, it can easily be said that the future of newspaper is likely to be digital. However, monetising news is still a challenge. Multiple revenues streams such as readers, advertisers, events or e-commerce (Franklin, 2014) could provide alternatives but results remain to be established.

Bibliography

BENTLEY, C. H. (2011). CITIZEN JOURNALISM: BACK TO THE FUTURE? Geopolitics, History, and International Relations , 3 (1), 103–118. Carvin, A. (2013). Mr. Los Angeles: CUNY Journalism Press. Curran, J. (2010). THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM. Journalism Studies , 11 (4), 464–476. Foreman, G. (2009). The ethical journalist : making responsible decisions in the pursuit of news. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Franklin, B. (2014). The Future of Journalism. Journalism Studies , 15 (5), 481–499. Hicks, W., Adams, S., Gilbert, H., & Holmes, T. (2008). Writing for journalists. London: Routledge. HILL, G. G. (2009). The British Newspaper Industry Supply Chain in the Digital age. Prometheus , 27 (2), 117–124. Hoffmann , D. (2013). Mr. New York: CUNY Journalism Press. Holmes, T., Hadwin, S., & Mottershead, G. (2013). The 21st century journalism handbook. Harlow: Pearson Education. Hyrkin, J. (2015, October 25). At the crossroads: The challenges facing publishers and content creators today . Retrieved October 25, 2015, from Medium: http://medium.com LAZAROIU, G. (2009). THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations (2), 155. LEE, E. (2015, May 3). The New York Times Will Hit One Million Digital Subscribers Soon. But Does It Matter? Retrieved October 25, 2015, from recode.net: http://recode.net/2015/05/03/the-new-york-times-will-soon-hit-1-million-digital- subscribers-but-does-it-matter/ Luhn, A., & Khalil, J. (2015, November 1). Russian plane crash: investigation begins into cause of Sinai crash . Retrieved November 1, 2015, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/31/russian-plane-crash-investigators-seek- cause-of-a321-crash NATHAN, F. (2015, November 1). Did bomb blow Russian jet out of the sky? Officials say plane broke up ‘in the air . Retrieved November 1, 2015, from The Sun: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6720446/Did-bomb-blow-Russian-jet-out- of-the-sky-Officials-say-plane-broke-up-in-the-air.html Robinson, S. (2011). Someone’s Gotta Be in Control Here. In D. A. Berkowitz, Cultural Meaning of News (pp. 151–165). London: SAGE Publication. Sun, T. (2015, October 31). Sun content is free to access from November 30, 2015 . Retrieved October 31, 2015, from thesun.co.uk: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/article6709792.ece?redirect=true Sweney, M. (2015, october 18). Newspapers face up to the ad crunch in print and digital . Retrieved october 22, 2015, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/18/newspapers-advertising-crunch-print- digital-slowdown?CMP=share_btn_tw#comment-61837275 Sweney, M. (2015, October 30). Sun website to scrap paywall . Retrieved October 31, 2015, from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/30/sun-website-to- scrap-paywall Tremblay, G. (2015). iPublish or perish: challenges facing the Québec press in the digital age. M edia, Culture & Society , 37 ( 1), 144–151. Williams, K. (2011). International journalism. London: SAGE.

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Competition and television news in India : a content analysis

2005, Australian journalism review

In India, not unlike some other developing countries, ruling parties have used public service broadcasters to propagate their virtues, adversely affecting the broadcasters' image as a credible news media. The Indian public service broadcaster. Doordarshan, which has been besieged by increased competition and government-imposed demandfor selfsufficiency in recent years, continues to struggle to shed its image as a government mouthpiece despite being run by an independent corporation. This article presents a content analysis of news programs broadcast by Doordarshan and a foreign television network. Star News. The study examines the differences and similarities between Doordarshan and Star TV's prime time news programs broadcast at the turn ofthe century, almost a decade after the advent ofcommercial television in India broke the public service broadcaster's monopoly in the country.

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Best Case Study Competitions In India In 2021 Are you an MBA student and confused about utilizing the opportunities available to get the best results out of your MBA? Probably would have heard about case study competitions. Surely, a great way to boost your career. Are you confused about which case competitions you can apply for and target to get the best results? Here is the answer for you. This article will list all the Best Case Study Competitions in India In 2021 that too sorted by your eligibility!!

It is that time of the year, probably, when you would have just joined a B-school and would be wondering how to maximize your opportunities. You came to know about case study competitions and want to know what are the best case study competitions in India in 2021 for you to participate in and, hopefully, win.

So, let me share with you, which are the case study competitions which you should be definitely aiming for in the next one year.

What are case study competitions?

Just as you would be required to tackle business problems, case study competitions also invite students/groups of students to come together and solve a business problem within some mentioned rules and regulations. Some competitions also involve pitching new business ideas focusing on entrepreneurial abilities.

Case study competitions require a well-rounded dedication and time from each participant. Reading and comprehending the case study is a vital part of solving the case. Hence, I would also like you to read this article , mentioning how to read case studies quickly.

Benefits of Participating in Case Study Competitions

By now you must be wondering why case study competitions are so hyped in MBA. Are there any benefits of putting so much extra effort into such competitions?

To answer all such questions, I have listed down some of the benefits of participating in case study competitions.

Application of Classroom Learnings

You, as a future marketing leader, would be looking at honing your skills much before you enter the industry. Sure, an internship is a great opportunity. However, how about you get to apply your classroom learnings to the business problems of some of the world’s top brands like HUL, Amazon, Loreal.

Isn’t that exciting?

Case Study competitions provide students the opportunity to apply concepts learned in the classroom and be industry-ready for future prospects.

The Differentiating factor in your CV

During your entire MBA journey, you will come across the term CV Shortlisting very often. Everyone during their stint at B-school fights hard to add that differentiating factor in their resumes, which will ultimately land them in their dream companies. Case study competitions without any doubt is the factor that will make you stand apart from hundreds of resumes.

During my MBA, I witnessed something which will truly inspire you to work towards case studies. I had a close friend who was just about average (academically) but he bagged PPO from one of the top private banks through its case study competition.

And from that day, he didn’t need to spend even a day in worry about his placements.

Corporate case study competitions are an excellent chance for students to grab a job in top companies. This can very help you in landing in your dream company.

Performing well in these interviews is also very important. I would also like you to read this article , describing how to answer interview questions.

Prize Money

With an MBA course already squeezing your pockets, case study competitions provide an excellent opportunity for you to earn lakhs of money and aid your expenses.

Certificates

Couldn’t make it to the national winners? Don’t worry! The top teams always get felicitated by certificates which are valuable in front of recruiters also. Not only to top teams, but some competitions also award certificates to all the participants.

Soft Skills Development

Since each competition requires you to work in a team of at least 2 or 3 members. You would know how difficult it can get to bring a team to consensus, no matter how small the team or the decision is. Thus, meticulous participation in case study competitions helps you improve key skills like teamwork, leadership, critical thinking under pressure, and time management.

But that’s the fun side of participating in case competitions.

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Best Case Study competitions in India in 2021

Hundreds of case study competitions are organized every year by corporates and various B-schools across the country, however, it is very important for you to know which are some of the best case competitions you should be targeting:

In this article, I would list some of the best corporate case study competitions in 2021 organized by both the corporates and the B-schools. In the article, we would be mentioning the best case study competitions you should be targeting depending upon your college tier.

The B-schools in the above tier are also eligible to participate in case study competitions mentioned for lower tiers. Say, a college in tier-1 is also eligible for competitions for tier-2 and tier-3 B-schools.

While we have tried to be accurate, whether your school is a part of that tier is subjective. Hence it is advisable to check the eligibility of your B-school on the competition website.

Best Case Study Competitions In India In 2021 For Tier -1 B-Schools

If you are in one in premier B-schools among IIM A, IIM B, IIM C, IIM L, IIM K, IIM I, ISB Hyderabad, MDI, JBIMS, FMS, IIFT, XLRI Jamshedpur, NITIE Mumbai, SJPIMR, SJMSON then would you have an opportunity to participate in one of the most sought-after case competitions in India.

H.U.L. L.I.M.E.

If you are a marketing aspirant then L.I.M.E. (Lessons in Marketing Excellence) is surely going to be your holy grail. It is among one of the most competitive corporate case study competitions also.

• Cash prize worth INR 10,00,000
• Ticket to the global Unilever case study competition: Unilever Future Leaders' League
• Cash prize of INR 3,00,000 for the 1st runner-up team
• Cash prize of INR 2,00,000 for the 2nd runner-up team
• Cash prize of INR 1,00,000 for the 3rd runner-up team

Marico Over the Wall

OTW is the flagship competition organized by Marico, which involves students participating in real business challenges and coming up with feasible and implementable ideas and solutions to overcome the same.

• Cash prize of INR 500000 to winning team
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Google Case Study Competition

If you want to get hands-on challenges are faced by one of the best companies in the world, this case study competition is for you. This is a highly stimulating competition incorporating - hardware sales, smart home cases, digital marketing, product growth, and user experience.

• Winners get a cash prize of INR 250000
• PPI opportunity for winners
• Finalists also get a chance to work closely with assigned Google mentors and understand Google's ecosystem better

Mahindra War Room

M.W.R. is a highly competitive case study competition inviting top B-schools from across the globe. The competition requires students to develop innovative and implementable solutions to real-life challenges faced by the Mahindra group.

• The winning team gets a cash prize of INR 500000
• PPI opportunity
• Winners also get an all-expense-paid trip to Formula E-International Race

Flipkart WiRED Campus Case Challenge

Flipkart's WiRED is a case study competition that allows you to gain hands-on experience in tackling real challenges faced by Indian e-commerce. You would have to choose from three domain-specific challenges between business, H.R., and supply chain.

The challenges are designed to test your technical knowledge and logical reasoning and how creatively you can solve a problem.

• National winners get prize money of INR 200000
• PPIs during the campus round

Johnson and Johnson Quest

It is a Business Case Competition where you will have an opportunity to bring a unique perspective and innovative solutions to critical business problems faced by different businesses of Johnson & Johnson.

• Pre-Placement Interviews (PPI's)
• Your recommendations being put into action by the company
• The Campus Champions get an opportunity to present their recommendations to the President's Council of Johnson & Johnson
• The Grand Finale winners will also meet the leadership team of Johnson & Johnson

Colgate Transcend

This is a competition organized by Colgate Palmolive group inviting students to address real situation problems faced by the company.

• Grand Finale Winners fly to Hong Kong to present to Asia Pacific Division Leadership
• A cash prize of Rs 3 Lakhs for Grand Finale Winners & Rs 2 lakhs for Grand Finale Runners-up
• PPIs for Grand Finale Winners & Runners-up
• Kindles & Colgate Gift Hampers for all National Finalists

Best Case Study Competitions In India In 2021 For Tier-2 B-Schools

Don’t feel missed out if you couldn’t participate in the case study competitions mentioned above. You still have a plethora of opportunities with some of the best case study competitions asking you for your participation.

If you are in of the B-schools including IIM Udaipur, IIM Trichy, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, IIM Rohtak, IIM Kashipur, DMS IIT Delhi, DMS IIT Madras, DMS IISc Bangalore, NMIMS, SIBM, SCMHRD, TISS, VGSOM, XIMB, here are some of the exciting case study competitions for you.

Optum Stratethon

For all MBA students who wish to pursue your in the technology and healthcare sector, don’t miss out on this competition. One of its kind, Stratethon is a global competition, thus the value you derive from participating and winning is unmatched.

• $3000 worth cash prize for regional winners
• $1500 cash prize for regional runners-up
• PPI opportunity for all the finalists
• Certificates for campus winners

Nestle 4Ps Challenge

One more opportunity to prove your marketing mettle. This competition gives you a chance to analyze and solve marketing problems for one of the top FMCG companies in the world.

• Winners get a cash prize of INR 100000 and a PPI opportunity
• Runners up get a cash prize of INR 60000

4P's being the cornerstone of marketing, it is very important that you understand the 4P concept very diligently. To know about 4P's in-depth, I would like you to go through this article also.

Titan Elevate

Another chance for you to participate in a widely respected group like the TATA group. Titan is one of the most successful brands of the TATA group, places Elevate among the best case study competition in India.

• Cash Prize of INR 1 lakh and live project opportunity for winners
• PPI/PPO opportunity for winners
• Cash prize of INR 75000 and INR 50000 for first and second runners up
• Titan Goodies and certificate for all finalists

Tata Steel-a-thon

Want to work with India’s most trusted and employee-friendly employer? Don’t miss out on this opportunity and participate in this competition asking for solutions from multiple domains including Corporate Strategy, Operations, HR, etc.,

• Cash Prize of INR 250000 and PPO opportunity for National Winners
• Cash Prize of INR 150000 and PPO opportunity for first runners up
• Cash Prize of INR 100000 and PPO opportunity for second runners up
• Cash Prize of INR 30000 and Inspire Internship for all national finalists

“Your chance to Rise Above”, the tagline of this competition indeed justifies itself, providing you with an opportunity to come up a business solution to disrupt the entire industry.

National Finale

• Cash Prize of INR 100000 for winners
• Cash prize of INR 50000 for runners up

Cluster Round

• Winners get Mi Soundbar + 2 Mi Luggage 20 + 2 Redmi Earbuds S+ 2 Mi Smart Band 4 + PPIs
• 2 Mi Smart Band 4 + 2Mi Dual Driver In-ear earphones + 2 Mi Luggage 20 for runners up

Campus Round

• Winners get 2 Mi Casual Backpack + 2 20000mAh Mi Power Bank 2i
• 2 Redmi 10000mAh Power Bank for runners up

Amazon Ace Challenge

A.C.E. (Amazon Customer Excellence) Challenge is organized every year as part of Amazon's vision to encourage innovation and identify the business leaders of tomorrow who devised innovative solutions for real-life complex business challenges.

• Cash prize of INR 200000 to the winning team
• Cash prize of INR 150000 for first runners up and INR 50000 for second runners up
• PPI opportunity for top 3 teams
• Amazon rewards

Best Case Study Competitions In India In 2021 For Tier-3 and other institutes

Don’t think that you are missing out on some of the best case study competitions in India in 2021 just because you are not part of tier-1 and tier-2 colleges. You still have the opportunity to participate in corporate case study competitions organized by some of the best world’s largest and best companies.

Hero campus Challenge

What’s more inspiring than solving the real situations faced by the world’s largest automobile company. Here, is your chance to compete with thousands of MBA students and prove your mettle.

• National Winners get a cash prize of INR 200000 along with a PPI opportunity
• Cash prize worth INR 100000 for runners up

Reliance T.U.P

T.U.P (The Ultimate Pitch) is organized to inspire the entrepreneur in you and pitch your ideas in front of industry stalwarts. If you feel you have a budding entrepreneur inside you, here is your chance to pitch your ideas to top leaders of Reliance industries.

• Cash Prize of INR 500000 for the winners
• Exclusive mentorship opportunity from Reliance JioGenNext Hub
• Pre-Placement Interviews for all National Finalists
• Cash Prize and goodies for campus round winners

Myntra Stylbiz

If you aspire to start your career in e-commerce, Stylbiz is the competition for you to target and get an exciting opportunity to solve problems faced by e-commerce giants like Myntra.

• Winners get a cash prize of INR 60000 and PPIs
• Cash prize of INR 40000 and PPIs for runners up

K.P.M.G. Ideation Challenge

If you have the ambition to become a successful entrepreneur, then the KPMG Ideation challenge is probably the best place for you to show your skills and test your ideas. The competition involves creating a prototype and pitching your ideas to business leaders.

• The winner gets INR4 lakh
• The prestigious title of 'Team India' to participate in international finals with teams from across the globe
• Runner up team in India finals to get INR2 Lakh
• Guaranteed internship with K.P.M.G. in India for top two teams from national finals
• Opportunity to attend a networking event in Delhi/Gurgaon with leaders from start-ups as well as the industry
• Win a cash prize of up to USD6000 (gift cards worth USD1000 per person) for winning the global finals

L'Oréal Brandstorm

To unleash the beauty entrepreneur in you, Brandstorm is an innovation competition organized for students around the world. Students are invited to Invent the Beauty Shopping Experience through Entertainment, exploring the world of retail and e-commerce, mentored by L'Oréal's digital experts.

• The winners get awarded the Intrapreneurship Award,
• A global 3-month internship for International winners in Paris
• Ideas suggested by them get implemented under the mentorship of industry leaders
• PPI opportunity for national winners and select students who performed amazingly in the preliminary rounds.

All the competitions mentioned above are only a few where you can test your skills. Apart from many other B-schools also organizes case competitions which are also worth participating in.

I hope this article helps you to identify the best case study competitions in India in 2021 for you and augment your MBA experience.

Being an MBA student, you would surely want to capitalize on all the opportunities you have during the two-year course. Case-study competitions come with a beautiful opportunity for you to make a mark and stand out from the crowd. The benefits of participating and especially winning a case competition are unmatched with all other things you do during your MBA.

Since many competitions are organized within a year, it is very important for you to identify the best-suited competition for you and dedicate your time with undivided attention.

To apply and know about each case study competition, refer to dare2Compete .

Also read: Highest Paying Jobs for MBA Graduates in India

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About the Author: Rishabh Gupta

Useful compilation!

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Very useful compilation

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Well written, Rishabh. Good read.

Case Study Telecom industry and competitive landscape in India: will MTNL and BSNL successfully recover?

IIM Ranchi Journal of Management Studies

ISSN : 2754-0138

Article publication date: 27 January 2022

Issue publication date: 1 March 2022

This case study aims to analyse the different factors that cause a decline in an organisation's performance. It projects data for the prospective case readers to explore the possible approaches for the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to turnaround both the organisations. Furthermore, the case compels the readers to study the Indian Telecom industry to analyse the competitive behaviour and the consequent actions necessary to survive and thrive amongst their peers. From the theoretical perspective, the case emphasises the recent change observed in the Telecom industry regarding the transition from value-chain to value-network.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected the case facts and data for the case study from secondary sources like the latest news articles, the CRISIL database, company annual statements, company press releases and government regulatory body web portals.

The case study has identified the issues pertinent in the public sector companies in India, especially in the telecom sector, concerning leadership, pending government financial commitments and a slow-moving attitude towards taking action.

Originality/value

The case study highlights the management problems faced by the CMD of the two public sector telecom companies i.e. BSNL and MTNL.

• Indian telecom industry
• Competitive landscape
• Turnaround strategy
• Value chain
• Value network

Kumar, R. and Bose, P. (2022), "Case Study Telecom industry and competitive landscape in India: will MTNL and BSNL successfully recover?", IIM Ranchi Journal of Management Studies , Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 82-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/IRJMS-12-2021-0179

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Rohit Kumar and Pallav Bose

Published in IIM Ranchi Journal of Management Studies . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode .

Introduction

On March 18, 2021, the Government of India (GoI) extended PK Purwar's additional charge for 6 months as the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) ( Economic Times, 2021b ). MTNL has its roots in Bombay Telephone, founded in 1882 ( MTNL, 2022 ) and now in 2021, is on the verge of closure ( Tripathi, 2019 ). Purwar, a 1990-batch of “Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service” (IP&TAFS) with over 30 years of experience, also manages Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as CMD. He now has an uphill task to design and develop the revival strategy for both the telecom companies in the wake of high competition from private players like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

In 2021, India is gearing up for the adoption of 5G technology, with the government announcing the technology spectrum auction ( Ahmed, 2021a ), and Purwar has to oversee both companies' smooth transition to 5G technology. But before getting into the 5G space, Purwar has to address multiple challenges, from the crunch of skilled staff due to recent voluntary retirement adopted by 90,000 employees ( Jain, 2020a ) to losing customers to the competition, fund shortage ( Abbas, 2019 ), wage delays, dragged vendor payments and similar strategic issues. In October 2019, GoI announced to back up MTNL and BSNL with an INR 70,000 crore ( Doval, 2019 ) (960 million USD) revival strategy and to merge ( The Hindu BusinessLine, 2019 ) both the telecoms. However, in March 2021, the decision on the merger was kept on hold ( The Hindu, 2021 ). With this uncertainty, Purwar is expected to devise a revival strategy to survive both the telecom companies in India. Also, will the transition from a value chain to a value network work in the case of MTNL and BSNL? What should Purwar do to achieve this strategic transition?

About BSNL and MTNL

BSNL and MTNL are the oldest telecom service provider in the country and had seen it all, from the introduction of landlines to the present-day 4G hi-tech services. Starting 2021, they are expected to see through a significant transition in the telecom industry to launch 5G technology-enabled services.

The history of MTNL dates back to the pre-independence era of 1882 when Bombay Telephone started its operations. It was only on April 1, 1986, when the GoI set up MTNL to upgrade telecom services quality, introduce newer services and expand the network in the country's major metropolises – Delhi and Mumbai. MTNL is headquartered in New Delhi and without any listing in any of the country's major stock exchanges. MTNL currently holds 14.48% of the wireline market share and 0.28% of the wireless market share in India. The cumulative subscriber base of MTNL stands at 6.23 million as of February 2021 ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2021a ). The revenue of MTNL dropped from 300 million USD in FY19 to 270 million USD in FY20. Currently, customers choose from various services provided by MTNL, including basic telephone, 2G & 3G GSM, FTTH, ISDN, Broadband, leased circuits, IN service, Wi-Fi hot spots and data centres.

Since MTNL is a public sector enterprise, the organisation is awarded “Navaratna” ( Department of Public Enterprises, 2020 ) status by the GoI. MTNL took the first significant step after its setup was the large-scale introduction of the push-button telephone to make dialling easier. Subsequently, before the liberalisation of the telecom sector, MTNL had already introduced Phone Plus service in 1988 and Voice Mail service in 1992. The decade post-liberalisation saw MTNL introducing Internet services in 1995, ISDN service in 1996 and Wireless in Local Loop service in 1997. In 2000, MTNL endorsed a new wholly owned subsidiary, Millennium Telecom Limited (MTL). 2001 was critical for MTNL since it was jumping on to the business of mobile telecommunication. It launched GSM cellular service in India. The same year saw MTNL progressing with a joint venture in Nepal under the name United Telecom Ltd. Year 2003 saw MTNL introducing CDMA technology and a pilot project for providing broadband Internet services. In the same year, a wholly owned subsidiary of MTNL, under Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Ltd, was launched in Mauritius. By 2004, MTNL had expanded its GSM and CDMA capacity by a total of 1.6 million lines. It also slashed its costly STD/ISD service rates by 60%. In 2005 MTNL officially launched its broadband Internet services and in 2006, launched IPTV services. In the same year, it started procuring WCDMA 3G service equipment. Subsequently, in 2008 and 2011, MTNL successfully launched 3G mobile services and FTTH services in India (see Table 1 ).

MTNL has two wholly owned subsidiaries, one in India, incorporated in 2000 as MTL, another one in Mauritius, incorporated in 2004 as Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML). MTNL has two joint ventures, one with STPI (Software Technology Parks of India), incorporated in 2006 as MTNL STPI IT Services Ltd. (MSITS), with MTNL having 50% equity. The second one with Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), Telecom Consultants India Limited (TCIL) and NVPL (Nepal Ventures Private Limited, a Nepalese Company) incorporated in 2001, as United Telecom Limited (UTL), with MTNL having 26.68% equity.

The history of BSNL dates back to the British era and is the country's oldest communication provider. It started the first telegraph line back in 1851 as part of the Postal and Telegraph Department in the British Period ( BSNLTeleServices, 2021 ). BSNL was incorporated in the year 2000 as an Indian telecommunications service provider owned by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, GoI, headquartered in New Delhi. BSNL offered landline services, and by 2002, it launched GSM-based mobile services popularly known as “CellOne” across all its telecom circles in India ( The Times of India, 2002 ). In 2005, BSNL launched its broadband Internet services under the name “Data One” in over 200 cities in India ( The Financial Express, 2015 ). Furthermore, in 2009 it launched 3G mobile services across 11 cities ( The Economic Times, 2009 ). In 2013, BSNL launched multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology to provide IP VPN services, thus providing corporate networking services ( Pandey, 2004 ). It claimed that this service would reduce 50% cost in comparison to the conventional leased line network. In 2018, BSNL launched a VOIP based phone service through an app under the name of “BSNL WINGS”, offering free audio/video calling services ( Dinakaran, 2018 ). BSNL launched fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband service in 2020 to compete with JioFiber, Airtel and Tata Sky broadband services ( BSNL Launches New Bharat Fiber, 2020 ). In 2019, BSNL launched its 4G LTE services with the plans of expanding them to all the telecom circles ( India Today, 2019 ). BSNL introduced first in the world satellite-based IoT network in India in a partnership with Skylo ( Press Information Bureau, 2020 ). The motive was to connect with machines, industrial IoT devices and sensors in a single network (see Table 2 ).

As of February 2021, it is the largest provider of wireline telecommunication in the country, with a 33.75% market share and the fourth-largest wireless service provider with 10.14% ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2021b ). The cumulative subscriber base of BSNL stands at 125 million as of February 2021. The revenue of BSNL dropped from 2.36 billion USD in FY19 to 2.3 billion USD in FY20 ( BSNL, 2020 ).

The telecom industry in India

India has the world's second-largest telecom network in terms of telephone subscriber base, with a total of 1,187.90 million users registered by the end of February 2021 ( Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2021b ). The number of active wireless telephone connections in India rose from 584.32 million in 2010 to 1157.75 million in 2020 (see Figure 1 ). The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution of the telecom industry is substantial and is steadily growing. Due to the booming telecom industry, India is witnessing an explosion in digital activities, which has aided the government to rely heavily on digital solutions to long-standing problems ( GSMA, 2017 ). The gross revenue from the telecom sector has touched Rs. 691.1 billion (USD 9.35 billion) in FY21, the 3rd quarter ( IBEF, 2021 ). The industry is anticipating the addition of 500 million Internet users due to the declining cost of data and mobile phone penetration over the next five years.

Indian Telecom sector – pre-liberalisation and post-liberalisation

The liberalisation policies embraced by the GoI in 1991 brought a paradigm shift in the Indian telecom sector. The sector saw a transition from a governmental monopolistic regime to that of an openly competitive environment. Before liberalisation, the telecom sector exhibited poor teledensity, high tariffs, low quality of services and poor customer satisfaction ( Gupta, 2015 ). Three crucial policy initiatives were introduced to curb these challenges, which paved the way for exponential growth in the telecom sector. The first policy was the National Telecom Policy, 1994 (NTP94). It highlighted the poor teledensity of the country at 0.8 per hundred people contrasting to the average world teledensity of 10 per hundred people ( National Telecom Policy, 1994 ). The policy introduced the establishment of a duopoly regime concerning two operators in the four metropolitan cities and each of the 18 telecom circles Government of India (2021) . Although the duopoly regime ensured the continuance of the government dominance in the telecom sector, this policy ensured protecting consumer interest and fair competition. It emphasised establishing a regulatory body and compelled the government to enact the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act 1997. The third policy implementation was the implementation of the New Telecom Policy 1999 (NTP99) ( Department of Telecommunications, 1999 ). It was brought in to handle the inadequacies of NTP94 and further liberalise the scope of the telecom services. Furthermore, it approved interconnection, shared resources among operators and replaced duopoly by the free entry of private players in the telecom sector.

Telecom customers and their increasing demands

The ever-increasing customer base has been attributed to the inflow of enormous investment in the form of FDI in this sector. The FDI in the telecom sector has been recorded to a total of USD 37.62 billion, which is the third-highest in terms of percentage of total FDI inflows Government of India (2020) . The number of mobile phones sold in India rose from 150.33 million in 2010 to 241.95 million in 2020 (see Figure 2 ). Also, the first quarter of FY21 saw a 16.6% y-o-y increase in customer spending on telecom services, of which 75% was on data services despite a lack of offline recharges during the COVID-19 restrictions. Scholars have identified that network and sales service quality is amongst the primary attributes of the existing and new prospective customers ( Ranaweera and Neely, 2003 ). With the advent of 4G technologies, the last decade has changed the perspective of a typical telecom customer demanding simple voice-based service to that of content-driven services like video calling, OTT platforms, mobile banking, to name a few.

A recent study suggests that the customer is now more informed and invested in gathering the service and product details ( Devadatta, 2017 ). The customers are more impressed by service providers, which empower them with exposure to maximum promotions and information, giving them the flexibility and ease to customise their services. Thus, the telecom sector is looking into the phenomenon of “customer-managed services”. This way of empowering the customers is taking the customers' experience to a new level of satisfaction while helping the telecom sector grow further by increased consumption of services, resource utilisation and improved profit margin.

Telecom value chain (upstream and downstream activities)

The telecom value chain can be divided into two broad categories – first, the services and applications related to the content and second, network architecture and access devices ( Sabat, 2002 ) (see Figure 3 ). There are several crucial players involved in the value chain with specific roles. Content providers primarily create content that is to be accessed by the subscribers through their devices. Then there are service providers who provide the necessary network, facilitating the subscribers to access the content. Next, the network infrastructure vendors are facilitating the required equipment to the network service providers. Finally, the mobile device vendors are providing necessary equipment to the final subscriber to access the content.

The first segment of the value chain related to content is divided into two categories. First, the content providers or content sources focus on the activities occurring in the upstream part of the telecom value chain. The second category constitutes the content enablers, i.e. OTT platforms, portals, system integrators, browsers and middleware solutions. These activities in this category mark the beginning of the downstream part of the telecom value chain.

Similarly, the second segment of the value chain is related to the network is further divided into two categories. First, the network infrastructure enables the secure transmission of the contents reliably to the subscribers to download and consume in their devices. This category of network infrastructure is further divided into core network equipment (router, node, servers and storage), radio access components (base stations, wireless modems, radios and circuits), hosting services, wireless LAN hardware, network operators and wireless service providers, and towers. The network operators and wireless service providers provision and manage the wireless network. The second category in the network segment is related to the user interfaces or access devices. The primary function of these devices is to provide access to the content consumable in audio-visual form. The basic access devices are handsets and personal computers. These devices need a basic display – a screen or audio output device – speaker and a browser. This segment signifies the core downstream activities involved in the telecom value chain.

From value chain to value network

The value chain perspective has limitations in terms of restricting the value creation to a single end product profiting a single organisation with a restriction on utilising the full potential of the connected players in the chain ( Peppard and Rylander, 2006 ). It was suitable for a physical product-based system like the wireline telephony. However, with the evolution of the end products, i.e. digitisation from the suppliers end to the final consumer deliverables, there is a need to shift from the value chain to the value network. Value network mainly deals with creating maximum value by combining values from the different economic actors in the system, i.e. suppliers, competitors and customers. The value networks consist of autonomous elements linked by service level agreement (SLA). Also, the position of the firm in these networks decides its performance and competitive advantage.

This can be seen in the case of the private telecom operators like Reliance Jio's collaboration with “Disney + Hostar VIP”, Vodafone-Idea's collaboration with “Zee5” and Airtel's collaboration with the “Amazon Prime”, “Disney + Hostar VIP” and “Zee5”, with the telecom operators' prepaid mobile recharge plans. In contrast, until July 2021, neither BSNL nor MTNL have collaborated with the OTT platforms for their prepaid mobile recharge plans, although OTT platforms are assessable through the broadband plan subscriptions of BSNL.

Competitors to watch

Currently, BSNL stands at the number one position for having the highest market share (subscriber base) in the wireline telecommunication services, whereas it has fourth in the wireless telecommunication sector. In the wireless sector, BSNL is behind Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea (see Tables 3 and 4 ).

Reliance Jio

The services of Jio went public in September 2016, is currently India's most prominent and world's third-largest mobile network provider, with a total customer base of 426.2 million as of March 31, 2021 ( Reliance Industries Limit, 2021 ). It operates only on a 4G network in the 22 telecom circles and does not offer 2G or 3G services as fellow incumbent telecom service providers do. The company registered a 28.9% growth in data traffic in FY21, which stood at 62.5 billion GB (gigabyte). Jio introduced JioFiber, a fiber-to-the-home service, on its third anniversary in September 2019, offering a bundled set of services, ranging from television, telephone to broadband services ( Mukherjee, 2019 ).

Jio has a highly engaged 426 million customer base and remains committed to enhancing digital experiences not only for our existing customers but for all individuals, households, and enterprises across the country. With its path defining partnerships over the last couple of years, Jio will continue to strive towards making India a premier digital society. ( The Statesman, 2021 )

Bharti Airtel

Airtel is an Indian MNC telecom service provider with service stretching to 18 countries, providing 2G and 4G services. It is the second-largest mobile network operator in India and the world, with a worldwide customer base standing at 471 million, of which 350 million customers are from India, as reported till March 31, 2021 ( Airtel, 2021 ). In Q4 of FY21, Airtel witnessed the highest number (2,74,000) of customer addition. Furthermore, Airtel had successfully strengthened its network by adding a 355.45 MHz spectrum in its bandwidth. In 2020, Airtel was named as the most valuable Indian telecom brand and the fourth most valuable Indian brand by BrandZ Top 75 most valuable Indian brands ( Best Media Info, 2020 ).

We have one and only one guiding principle – customer obsession, and it is gratifying to see customers reward Airtel for constantly listening to them and innovating to serve them even better, especially at a time when the pandemic has redefined the normal. Today, Airtel has the highest number of active mobile subscribers in India, and more importantly, we believe we are leading in the hearts of customer ( Economic Times, 2021a )

Vodafone-Idea (VI)

VI is an Indian telecom service company providing 2G and 4G services with a consolidated subscriber base of 269.8 million as reported till Q3 of FY21 ( Vodafone-Idea, 2021a ). It has the third-largest mobile telecommunication network in India and the seventh-largest in the world. VI was formed in August 2018 from the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. It got its brand identity from the integration of the separate brands of Vodafone and Idea into a unified brand in September 2020 ( The Indian Express, 2020 ). Furthermore, VI became the fastest Indian telecom after passing the speed test certified by Ookla, with a continued streak for three consecutive quarters till March 2021.

With the introduction of VI Managed SIP service, VI is now in a position to be a single point facilitator of comprehensive fixed telephony solutions that enable businesses to gain better control of their overall voice infrastructure and the ability to garner meaningful insights on voice performance for their clients/ internal stakeholders. I am confident that this significant addition to our basket of best in class, holistic communications solutions for Enterprises, will help our customer organisations transform the way they communicate with their customers ( Ahmed, 2021b )

Telecom player's death due to competition

Over the last three years, the competition in the Indian telecom industry has forced some of the players to shut their shops. Companies forced to either file for bankruptcy, or sell their businesses, were Reliance Communication, Tata Teleservices – Tata Docomo and Aircel.

Reliance communication

Reliance Communication, also known as RCOM, founded in July 2002 (Reliance Infocomm Limited), was an Indian Telecom service provider that offered 2G and 3G services. It was the pioneer of nationwide CDMA2000 service introduced in 2002 ( Ganapati, 2002 ). The company was forced to shut down in 2019, and it filed for bankruptcy due to its failure to repay debt ( Thomson Reuters, 2019 ).

We have decided we will not proceed in this sector. Many other companies have taken a similar call. This is very much the writing on the wall ( Arun, 2019 )

Ultimately in 2019, after many unsuccessful attempts of revival, RCOM filed for bankruptcy.

Tata Teleservices – Tata Docomo

A subsidiary of Tata Group, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) was the mobile network division of the group founded in 1996. Tata Docomo was the wholly owned subsidiary of TTSL. These companies were burdened by a load of debt and consistent losses. In November 2017, the companies were sold to Bharti Airtel with the transition of the existing customers to the Airtel mobile network by July 2019 ( Airtel, 2017 ).

They (Tatas) chose a costlier and better-optimised technology and made it a poor man's technology in India. So, they had to pay out bigger subsidies, leading to poor financials. That was a strategic mistake in the market, ( Airtel, 2017 )

They were not the fastest moving or decision-making company in the sector. The culture of long-drawn processes that work for older industry companies in the group spilled over to TTSL. When the industry was moving with faster decision making, they did not react that much. ( Airtel, 2017 )

Intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses had together caused significant negative business and reputational impact on the company ( India Today, 2018 )

Post detailed discussions with the financial lenders and shareholders; the company could not reach consensus regarding restructuring its debt and funding. Despite these discussions and the invoking of a strategic debt restructuring scheme in January 2018 … no agreement could be reached ( India Today, 2018 )

MTNL-BSNL merger: decision pending

Rationale and government support.

At present, both BSNL and MTNL are ailing due to their cash crunch, declining customer base, fierce cost-cutting competition from private players rolling out superior 4G services PAN India ( Tripathi, 2019 ). To revive BSNL and MTNL, the government approved a four-step process in November 2019, covering a capital investment of INR 70,000 crores (USD 960 million), merging the two telecoms. It was the third attempt to merge the companies. The first attempt was made in 2002 when the Telecom Ministry proposed that the merger would bring synergy between the companies. However, the attempt was unsuccessful due to large-scale opposition by the employee union. The second attempt was made in 2015 by the government. It commissioned IIM Bangalore to carry out a feasibility study of the merger and suggest a strategy to merge. However, it never got materialised either. As per the latest revival plan approved by the government, the four steps include – adjustment towards GST, voluntary retirement service (VRS) for employees, capital infusion towards 4G spectrum purchase and raising capital through sovereign bonds ( Lok Sabha, 2021 ).

However, in the latest turn of events, in January 2021, the government deferred the merger of the two companies citing both companies' high debts as a primary reason. The telecom ministry further noted the merger to be unfeasible and non-beneficial. The telecom ministry has implemented close cooperation and integration between the two companies ( Economic Times, 2021c ). The situation is indeed food for thought – can two mules make a racehorse? The revival plan lacks any comprehensive plan for the merged entity integrating the organisation's people and works culture. Whereas deferring the merger has posed some serious challenges for Purwar. The revival plan was planning a capital investment of INR 70,000 crores (USD 960 million). Without any such investment for an indefinite period, Purwar needs a plan to manage the enormous debt for both MTNL and BSNL. Furthermore, the 4G spectrum allocation as part of the revival plan has also been stalled for an unspecified period.

Current challenges

Leadership challenges.

Both BSNL and MTNL have been criticised in the past for their inefficient leadership succession plans. In 2014, Kapil Sibal, the then telecom minister, pointed out the need for mandatory evaluation of the extension of service for the outgoing CMDs ( Parbat, 2014 ). Furthermore, the employee union of BSNL had charged the organisation with failed HR policies due to its inability to pay its salaries ( Abbas, 2021 ). There had also been a case when the image of MTNL got tarnished due to corruption charges against CMD R S P Sinha ( The Indian Express, 2009 ). Sinha was relinquished from the position due to an allegation of fraud in a 2004 tender case. Both the PSU telecom companies are continually witnessing management related challenges in the tenure of Purwar as well. With the implementation of VRS for employees, the organisation is facing issues related to staff shortage at work, leading to a surge in customer complaints and more time in their resolution ( Johari, 2020 ). It further adds up to the list of challenges Purwar is currently facing. Purwar needs to think about whether young employees should be hired at this stage. If new recruitments are made, how will it impact the revival plan of both the telecom companies?

Entry of new players – satellite communication

Groundbreaking innovators are taking up the level of competition in the recommunication industry to the next level. Recently Elon Musk has ventured into the field of satellite communication. Musk's company SpaceX plans to launch 40,000 satellites under the name of Starlink ( News18, 2020 ). The project shall increase the Internet speed and provide extensive coverage of broadband Internet in remote locations.

The transition from value chain to value network

Both BSNL and MTNL are deeply invested in the wireline telephony business from the start of their journey. They are acutely embedded in the value chain system of running the business due to a lack of digitisation of their services. Furthermore, both the telecom players are predominantly vertically integrated with minimal third-party involvement as a public sector company. This is evident from the fact that none of the prepaid mobile recharge plans of the telecoms allows the customers to opt for an OTT platform. Now, this is a severe challenge for Purwar. All these drawbacks lead to less usage of data by the customers and hence fewer chances of enhancing the revenue for the companies. Purwar faces the challenge of shifting the organisation's focus from a value chain-based system to a value network-based system and collaborating with third party firms with an SLA system in place.

The silver lining – 5G spectrum auction

The Telecom Ministry had announced that both BSNL and MTNL would be allocated 5G spectrum on an administrative basis without any need for the companies to participate in the spectrum auction ( The Financial Express, 2021b ). The 5G spectrum allocation would be similar to the 4G spectrum allocation for BSNL in 2021-22. The formal telecom auction for the private players is supposed to occur by the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022. Furthermore, the government sees 5G technologies as a catalyst for bringing in socio-economic reforms in the country ( Deloitte India, 2018 ). This new development can be a game-changer for Purwar since MTNL and BSNL see this opportunity and aspires to penetrate and proliferate into the country's remotest corners. The telecoms believe that the government should give them the best quality of spectrum available, i.e. the 700MHz frequency band, so that the socio-economic fabric of the country could be transformed ( TRAI, 2019 ). Now Purwar needs to figure out how to bank on this opportunity which shall be causing substantial financial commitments to other private telecom operators but not to BSNL and MTNL as they are public undertakings. The 5G spectrum shall be provided administratively (free of cost) to BSNL and MTNL by the GOI.

Way forward and closing remarks

With the set of challenges of the dwindling government telecoms and the opportunity of free 5G spectrum allocation, it is the task of Purwar to analyse the situation and come up with strategic steps to revive MTNL and BSNL. Would Purwar be successful in turnaround the declining phase of MTNL and BSNL, or, for the better sake, the once strategic asset of the government needs to be shut down? What should Purwar do? Should he make a transition attempt of the telecom value chain to a telecom value network? He contemplated the strategies he needed to adopt.

Wireless Telephone connections in India from 2010 to 2020

Mobile phone sales in India from 2010 to 2020

The mobile wireless value chain

Important milestones of MTNL