Quote Unquote — Mind your language

Telecom Commission chairman AV Gokak sent out a grim reminder to the audience that English was absolutely necessary for survival in the telecom market. "This does not mean that one needs a thorough knowledge of Shakespeare or Wordsworth," he quipped. According to Gokak, a functional yet full knowledge of the English language was an essential pre-requisite for the telecom manager in a globalised environment. He said that the country committed a "great mistake" by discarding English at the time of Independence though this was now being remedied. It was just not enough to know English, Gokak said. Among the other skills prospective telecom managers would need were an ability to analyse and synthesise. With telecom becoming increasingly inter-disciplinary, the absence of such abilities is felt at the policy-making level. Gokak regretted that the telecom sector suffered from a major managerial deficiency. He exhorted students to develop expertise in project management and the management of change. He referred to the assumptions that could go wrong between planning and execution.