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     Indiarocks Side Hero Username: Indiarocks Post Number: 6344 Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 96.18.85.62 Rating: N/A |
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1162730.ece?hom epage=true Hard on the heels of its explosive investigations of the 2G spectrum allotments made in 2008 by the Department of Telecommunications, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has started inquiries into a 2005 agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. The agreement relates to ISRO's launching of two satellites for Devas but automatically bestows on the latter a large hidden benefit: unbridled use of 70 MHz of the scarce S-band spectrum over a 20-year period. ISRO is under the Department of Space (DoS), which is directly in the Prime Minister's charge. Business Line learns that according to preliminary CAG estimates, this spectrum largesse to a private customer could have caused the exchequer a loss in excess of Rs. 2 lakh crore. According to the contract with Devas, Antrix would have earned $11 million a year per satellite for 12 years.  |
