BlackBerry-maker RIM's India MD Frenny Bawa quits to pursue other interests

NEW DELHI: At a time when the company is facing hurdles due to security concerns, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion's India Head Frenny Bawa has quit to pursue other interests.

"This is to confirm that Frenny Bawa - RIM's Managing Director for India - is leaving RIM in order to pursue other interests. We appreciate Frenny's past contributions to RIM's growth and we wish her all the best," the company's spokesperson said.

The development comes close on heels of BlackBerry facing flak from scores of subscribers over a recent three-day blackout of services worldwide, including in India.

The company, however, denied any relation between the two.

Further, the company's spokesperson added, "We will keep you posted on Frenny's replacement in due course of time."

Frenny has played a vital role in BlackBerry's global expansion into markets such as the Middle East, Africa and most recently, India.

Based out of Vancouver and reporting to RIM headquarters in Waterloo, Bawa headed RIM's operations in India, while also overseeing business development in the Middle East and Africa.

Prior to joining RIM in 2004, Bawa held several senior-level positions at TELUS, a leading national telecommunications company in Canada.

Last month, scores of BlackBerry users faced problems in accessing e-mail, messenger and other online services on their smartphones for three days due to a core switch failure.

India has close to one million BlackBerry subscribers. For the three months ended August 27, 2011, RIM reported a nearly 59 per cent decline in net income to USD 329 million.

The company had posted a net income of USD 797 million for the June 28-August 27 period last year, RIM had said in a statement.

The Telecom Ministry is asking RIM to come up with a solution for real-time interception of its all enterprise services.

Recently, Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM) came up with a solution for real-time interception of its BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) after seeking several extensions of the deadline for nearly a year.

The government had earlier set August 15 as the deadline for RIM, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, to provide the country's security agencies with interception keys to enable real-time tracking of its popular messenger and corporate e-mail services in readable format.