Ailing ITI shifts corporate office

Ailing ITI shifts corporate office
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Consequent to the massive downsizing measures undertaken by the ailing PSU--Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI), its corporate office in the upmarket locality on Magarath Road, has been shifted to its own ITI Bhavan premises in Doorvaninagar.

ITI which shifted its corporate HQ lock-stock-and-barrel a week ago was compelled to do so as the PSU's strength has come down from about 22,000 employees to less than 4,500 today said sources.

The three floor with basement parking building has now been taken on rent by the neighbouring HOSMAT hospital which is getting it painted and renovated in order to shift parts of its out-patient, neurosurgery, neurology departments and wards into the new building.

ITI, which was once the largest manufacturer of telephones in the country, has in recent years faced deadly competition from large, medium and even large-scale manufacturers. While the PSU's products have failed to match the fashionably designed, feature-loaded, high quality telephones manufactured by private companies, the PSU itself has become a sick enterprise with few orders to cater to.

Unlike two other PSUs of the same era-- Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), who are never short of orders as their biggest customers are the Indian Defence forces, ITI, which was mainly selling telephones and telecom equipment, has lost out in the globalisation race.

Meanwhile BEL which has been performing well by diversifying into consumer electronics and other goods, shifted from its one floor corporate office on Race Course road to its own very posh multi-storeyed office complex on Hebbal Ring Road.

After suffering immense losses for years, the ITI has eased out thousands of employees in the last seven to eight years by offering them attractive voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) and cut down the strength to a fifth of the original.

``Ten years ago, every residential street had a couple of ITI employees living in it. Today finding an ITI staffer is like looking for a needle in a haystack,'' said a retired ITI manager.