For almost 10 centuries until the early 1900s, some traitors and murderers in China met their end in a most unusual way. They were tied to a post in full public view and had pieces of their body cut off before a stab to the heart put them out of their misery. The gruesome execution method was called lingchi, and you may know it as 'death by a thousand cuts'. It also describes a collection of events, rather than just one, causing the downfall of something or someone. There's no better metaphor for Vi's current state. The telco has been dealt a blow after fateful blow—bruising competition from Reliance-owned Jio Infocomm; the ruinous merger between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular (Vodafone Idea later became Vi - a big fat spectrum bill that Vi couldn't pay. In January 2022, Vi agreed to make the government the largest shareholder in lieu of dues worth $1.9 billion. More than a year later, that has come to pass, with the government now owning one-third of the company. If you think this is the reprieve Vi badly needed, you must read the clear-eyed take on the telco's predicament. Vi still owes the government $23 billion and banks $1.5 billion. Next to this, the $600 million that Vi promoter Aditya Birla Group reportedly plans to invest is chump change. Especially when Vi needs $6 billion for a pan-India network upgrade. With a worrying exodus of customers, Vi—and the government—have three roads before them.
