The flamboyant Chairman of Reliance Communications, Anil Ambani, has been held guilty of contempt of court by the Supreme Court and now faces a prison term of three months if he does not cough up an amount of ₹ 453 crores to Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson. The company had no luck in trying to convince its lenders led by SBI to release an income tax refund of ₹ 266 crore to help it pay part of its dues. With no plan in sight, it will be interesting to see how the debt ridden telecom operator manages to keep its promoter and two other top executives out of jail. Another telecom operator, although from the public sector, BSNL, is struggling to keep afloat. With a highly bloated staff and continuously making losses, the company needs a capital infusion of 14,000 crores, in spite of receiving ₹ 7,500 crores by the government just two years ago. With an employee base of almost 2,00,000 no government would be wanting to shut it down. However, firms such as these must go into liquidation in order to stop wasting public money.
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