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Kumar Mangalam Birla has been camped out in Delhi for over a week now. Birla, the chairman of beleaguered telco Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), first rushed to the smog-filled national capital at the end of October, after a Supreme Court judgement which shook the telecom industry. The apex court ruled that telecom operators owed a combined Rs 1,31,000 crore ($18.23 billion) to the government in line with a broader definition of what constitutes taxable revenue.

Suffice to say that the already ailing VIL is now on life support.