Source: what happened in 1991 to Indian Economy?
Ten years ago, telecommunications services were a state monopoly and constituted a major bottleneck on the conduct of business activity. So callous was the attitude of the government that when a Member of Parliament complained about poor telephone service in Delhi during the early 1980s, the then telecommunications minister went on to remind him that in a poor country like India, the telephone was a luxury. The minister then added that if the Member was unhappy with the service, he could return his phone since many customers had queued up for it for years
