World War II has taken its toll and British companies are no longer able to supply telephones to India.

As a result, the government has decided to establish Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI) in Bangalore. Founded in 1948, ITI is India’s first public sector unit and will provide telephone equipment to meet the country’s growing developmental needs.

For the first Bakelite series, due to paucity of resources, ITI has cleverly repurposed defunct moulds from the Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Company (ATM) of England. The brand-new rotary phones are available in peach, blue, green, pink, black, red, and white.

In the years to come, ITI is going to develop into its own. It will expand to six manufacturing units and with the advent of the Wireless Age in the 21st century, the company will also produce mobile equipment and GSM technology.