Birla's gift is a masterstoke.

"The chairman of Vi, Kumar Mangalam Birla has written to the central government offering to hand over the stake he owns in the telco, if it would help save the company," The Indian Express (TIE). "Vi, formerly known as Vodafone Idea, is reeling under debt in excess of Rs 1.5 lakh crore (Rs 1.5 trillion). As of March 31 this year, the company owed nearly Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) as adjusted gross revenue (AGR), Rs 96,270 crore (Rs 962.70 billion) in deferred spectrum obligations and another Rs 23,000 crore to banks and financial institutions." "If there is a lesson for businessmen in the collapse of telecom major Vodafone-Idea, it is that they should tread carefully because there is no certainty that regulation will remain fair for all players. As they make investments, they must, at all times, be prepared to accept changes in the rules that could be completely arbitrary and could even favour the competition," Financial Express. The problem hinges on the meaning of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) which telecom companies agreed to pay in addition to enormous licence fees and fees for spectrum. "According to the DoT, the calculations should incorporate all revenues earned by a telecom company -- including from non-telecom sources such as deposit interest and sale of assets," TIE. The dispute has been going on since 2005 and the companies have visited the Supreme Court on several occasions, TIE. And lost each time. "The Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, cannot be subject matter of any future litigation, the Supreme Court has said," Business Standard (BS) on 24 July, 2021. Nick Read, CEO of UK based Vodafone Group Plc has ruled out any further investment in the company, BS. Which means it is ready to let the company go bankrupt, with consequent loss of jobs. The DoT may pick over the carcass to salvage as much as it can from sale of assets of the group and banks will be left with a pile of bad debt. "Nationalization should rank high among the few viable options worthy of consideration, even though the state getting into the driver's seat of private enterprise has in the past created zombies on perpetual taxpayer support," wrote Andy Mukherjee. The two government owned telecom companies, BSNL and MTNL, are already making losses in billions of rupees, factly. Merging one loss-making company with another makes little sense. "In a research note this week, Deutsche Bank AG's telecom analyst Peter Milliken and associate Bei Cao laid out the stark choice facing what they describe as 'the most painful market we have come across to operate a telecom'." That is why Birla's offer of handing over his share of the company to the government becomes a classic 'poisoned chalice'. If the government declines it maybe blamed by the thousands of employees (wikipedia), and their families, who will lose their jobs. With Vodafone out of India, the retrospective tax demand of Rs 221 billion on Vodafone for the purchase of Hutchison Telecommunications will become null, Economic Times (ET). Not just that, Vodafone will be free to enforce an award of Rs 750 million against the Government of India for part of legal and arbitration costs, BS. Recently, the government confirmed "that a French court has ordered the freezing of certain Indian assets in Paris on a petition by Britain's Cairn Energy, which is seeking to recover $1.72 billion from New Delhi after winning an arbitration against retro tax," The Week. "It has identified $70 billion of Indian assets overseas for the potential seizure to collect the award." "Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd has joined Cairn Energy Plc in its attempt to seize Air India Ltd's assets abroad," moneycontrol. Air India had a total debt of Rs Rs 383.66 billion in 2020-21, CNBC. The government is keen to sell Air India but buyers are asking for indemnity against seizure of assets, The Week. If the government takes over Vi it will have to pay itself for its own taxes and recompense the banks. A masterstroke by Birla.