S Band: A secret story sought to covered up over 6 years

It was a great ploy intelligently crafted and then unwillingly broken declared ‘annulled’. All the top notch people and esteemed institutions were instrumental in making this episode crucial, juicy and dramatic. Prime minister office as usual tried to shrug off the onus of this issue. One of the most reputed organizations – Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was in the helm of the entire episode. Even the role of foreign institutions and investors involvement added all due elements to elevate the seriousness of the matter. And as this issue is comes under the jurisdiction and direct supervision of Prime minister – which has already earned the reputation of Silence/Weak/Compromising PM- and his complete unawareness from the license allotment add woe to his government which earnestly proved itself to be the most corrupt, tainted, & irresponsible government country has ever saw. The amount which is presume as a loss to exchequer is staggering 2, 00, 000, 000, 000, 00 or $32 billion  or simply 2 lakh crore, making it the biggest scam ever happened in India.

 

S band spectrum scam which emerged as the biggest scam in the country was the outcome of unfair and opaque (back-door) policy opted by government and allotted the valuable and scarce asset at throwaway prices to a Bangalore based private company Devas Multimedia. The S band is the part of frequency spectrum ranging between 2 GHz- 4 GHz. And what makes this airwave frequency so crucial is its usage for the satellite communication and other sophisticated purposes like security and high-end technological applicability in WiMax and LTE, other than basic mobile services.

Though the estimated loss of 2 lakh crore is calculated by Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), which earlier estimated the 2G spectrum scandal as 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer. Later Kapil Sibbal has declared this estimate as highly erroneous. God knows what if Kapil shab again given chance to defend government what he would say? Utterly ridiculous!!!!

 

Government worldwide used to make billions of dollars by putting such waves on auction and inviting bid in a highly competitive process. Last year Indian government earned more than 1 lakh crore rupee by selling Broadband and 3G spectrum in a competitive auction. This money is now a cushion to the UPA-2 government to meet all its populist and so-called pro-people flagship schemes.

Just have a look to the other aspect of this S Band spectrum scandal. Recently 20 MHz of spectrum was given to two state owned company BSNL and MTNL at 12,847 crore for offering broadband spectrum. And as per the media reports Devas Multimedia was awarded with 70 MHz in the same band with just 1,350 crore. 

Though the entire paperwork related to the license allotment has fianlised in Jan 28, 2005 when ISRO by its commercial wing Antrix granted a contract to a small start-up firm Devas Multimedia without proper bidding process. But the entire issue came to surface only recently when a leading business newspaper published the CAG observation in which he had questioned the manner in which ISRO-Antrix rented out transponders to Devas.

The worth of S-band telecom spectrum is in billions of dollars to communication providers. While S-band is not in intensive use but likely to become increasingly valuable in India’s growing mobile phone market with its ability to provide wireless broadband and other mobile data services.  And this is the reason why a Bangalore start-up Devas Multimedia by MG Chandrasekhar, a former scientific secretary at ISRO attracted the foreign investors. The company’s three major investors Deutsche Telekom Asia, Columbia Capital/Devas Mauritius and Telecom Devas Mauritius, holds 53 per cent of the stake in the company. The deal which now has declared as annulled by Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) would have given Devas a back-door policy to highly monetizeble S-band spectrum. Strategically importance spectrum became the blue-eyed cash rich spot for capitalist investor’s greedy-eagle eye.

Now everything seems to be set in right manner as government has scrapped the deal but few questions remain unanswered:-

Ø      Why the ISRO-Antrix has allotted the license to a start-up founded in 2004 without any bidding process of such a scarce national assets that too without PMO approval?

     Ø      Who set the price of 70 MHz spectrum at 1350 crore rupees on Jan 28 2005 for the deal              as it is only after 2008 an airwaves price has got high evaluation?

     Ø      Why government has took almost 7 months to scrap the deal though Space Commission                has recommended to cancel the deal on July 2, 2010?

     Ø      Why if Space Commission has raised its eyebrow on the deal despite of canceling it Prime               minister and government was denying any of such scandal till recently?

SMALL FACT ABOUT THE BIG PICTURE

 Founder and Chairman of Devas Multimedia

Dr. Chandrasekhar has over 35 years of experience in satellite services with leading institutions. He served as Scientific Secretary and Member of Apex Management Council, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) (1988-1997). Prior to that, he joined ISRO in 1973 and held various senior techno-managerial positions and played a key role in developing IRS and INSAT programmes and operating its fleet of satellites. 

President and CEO of Devas Multimedia

Ramachandran Vishwanathan is  a veteran of 20 years in the internet and satellite communications space — sectors that are controlled tightly by the government. He has studied engineering at Stanford and finance and marketing at MIT Sloan. He worked with McKinsey and Goldman Sachs before he signed up with WorldSpace. Ram’s next job was as chief strategy and corporate development officer at Cidera, a leader in broadband Internet content distribution. He was next seen as the managing director of Forge Advisors, a strategic consultancy and technology incubator.

DevasMultimedia, a startup in Bangalore, was founded in 2004 to set up a national satellite system for delivering applications for rural development, e-governance, emergency communications, remote connectivity and strategic services, according to the company's website.

Final note:-

News are floating in political and bureaucratic corridors that the inside information on the contract that is now in the public domain came from a senior bureaucrat and relative of the first family of Tamil Nadu with sole motive to shift attention from the 2G scam and the role of the former telecom minister A.Raja to the prime minister; a move that could drive a bigger wedge between the already strained relations between the DMK and the Congress. The dubious role of the bureaucrat in revealing classified information about the Isro/Antrix-Devas contract — which cannot be accessed through the Right to Information Act — and thereby, whipping up a smear campaign against the prime minister, who holds the portfolio of space and the organisation.

 

People and institutions directly came in picture during this whole uproar Mr. Manmohan Singh, Law Minister Veerappa Moiley, ISRO, Space Commission, PMO, Cabinet Committee on Security, Department of Space, Defense Minister A.K.Anatony, Antrix, Devas Multimedia, Three major Foreign Investors.

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