r2i forum

India was hoping that 2011 would be better than 2010, the year when two of Congress led UPA's big scams got exposed. In fact 2G was till today, the LARGEST loot in the independent India's history.

2G scam involving DMK: http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/18541-UPA-s-Mega-scam-involving-DMK-Media-amp-NGOs-2G-Spectrum-Scam

CWG scam: http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/21252-An-Eye-Sore-for-Rupees-70-Thousand-Crore

But bad news.. particulary a sever bad news for those who thought Manmohan Singh was the best thing since sliced bread.. a man of integrity blah blah.

The S Band Scam is here: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article1162730.ece

[QUOTE]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.

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.

By comparison, the presumptive loss incurred in the allocation of 2G spectrum by the DoT, as estimated by the CAG, is Rs 1.76 lakh crore.


Watch for more developments soon. Just like in case of 2G, there will be lots of denials, mud slinging on NDA and going by that script, it may take a few months to get to the bottom of this scam. But as of this afternoon, S Band could be dethroning 2G as the WORST scam in independent India's history.

Another feather in the cap of Doctor Manmohan Singh.. the man of great 'integrity'! Unlike Sonia (UPA chairperson) & Manmohan (PM) managing to lend Raja as a sacrificial goat in 2G, this may take the PM down if the preliminary CAG numbers hold on. After all Space is a department under Manmohan in both UPA1 and UPA2!

These are not "regular" scams based on Indian standards... If a scam is below Rs.50,000 crore (about $11 billion), I would probably not open a thread. That is the level of hopelessness in recent times :(

Keep it tuned to the "S Band" scam frequency for more updates...

Its about time actions be taken - whoever it is. Congress boasts of taking action, let's see what game they play now.

Every damn thing is scammed.

This could be an attempt by UPA to distract attention from the 2G scam. It has to be a conspiracy hatched by UPA and DMK to help criminal Raja and his cronies get away without any serious punishment for the 2G scam by diverting the Country's focus to another scam, which they claim involves more money. Eventually, they'd declare nobody was found guilty on any of these scams or arrest someone at the bottom of the pile for accepting a few thousand or lakh rupees. Haven't we been there before?

If the reports are baseless, why doesn't the Puppet come and hold a press conference?. Why the need for a statement by PMO?.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Reports-of-loss-in-S-band-spectrum-allocation-baseless-PMO/articleshow/7453691.cms

IMO, BJP should continue to stall the Parliament till JPC is accepted by Congress. This will make every common man speak about Spectrum

I don't believe stalling the Parliament is going to cause harm in anyway ( Might be more productive as the MP's would go and do some useful work :) ). The bills can be paused with / without the Parliament functioning .

rmd5464;366973I may be wrong, but to me this appears more of a frequency band co-ordination issue than a scam. ISRO got this band 30 years ago , when mobile communications was not heard of. They leased to Devas a part of the S band transponder ( I think in 2005), as is usually done in the satellite industry. ISRO also leases C band and Ku band transponders ( where the bandwidth is even larger - 500 MHz) for DTH,VSAT etc, but then they are not part of the lucrative cellular band - so no auctions etc. Only recently this part of the S band was allocated for 4G services, so suddenly this spectrum has become lucrative, and if auctioned may bring in the lakhs of crores. But ISRO has already built 2 satellites in this band , and if they are not allowed to use this band , those transponders wil be unusable. If they are allowed to use, then 4G cannot use this spectrum due to interference issues....
Fine mess...

Wonder how this will resolve !!

I liked your way of thought & analysis here. So did a bit of reading, combined with picking the brains of my online friends.

No it doesn't sound as 'innocent' as ISRO & Manmohan didn't know what was happening till CAG report showed up in media yesterday. Let me present what I learned & understood today highlighting the 5 grave mistakes of Manmohan that ensured we are now staring at the brewing of mother of all scams in independent India's history.

ISRO did not auction anything prior to 2005, so it's OK to give them benefit of doubt for this Devas deal in 2005, within a year of Manmohan becoming the PM & also the minister for department of Space.

ISRO has formed a subsidiary called Antrix that leases transponders. This is a purely commercial venture of ISRO. The idea was to make money leasing transponders to Tata Sky, Sun TV, etc. Doordarshan also used to be beamed via S Band at that time. It had a limitation of some 12 channels.

Soon KU band came into practical picture, so S Band to KU band shift happened for all, including DD. This was due to 1 feet dish usability compared to 12-18 feet diameter giant dishes.

Essentially at that point, ISRO thought even Rs.1000 crore (or so) coming from getting rid of S Band to an ex-ISRO guy's new commercial venture is a smart move. This was mistake #1. Manmohan Singh's PMO should have at least looked around other countries, which had moved to newer 3G technology already to valuate what was the real market value of this S Band spectrum. Remember, Japan, Korea etc. already were into much higher speed internet on mobile too.

Mistake #2 was that in 2008, the private guy (Davos) who had monopoly over this spectrum started selling his stakes to a German firm. The PMO or ISRO should have sensed that something is cooking. $75 million for just 17% stake of this company?

Then blatant disregard to what a national level newspaper was clearly hinting 8 months before CAG report's excerpts shows up. That was Mistake #3. On May 31st 2010, The Hindu Business line clearly explained why Davos was a preferential deal. It went on to expose that according to the NFAP, satellite bandwidth CAN NOT be given away selectively to a single commercial entity; any available opportunity should be thrown open to industry at large. If Manmohan was really aware of what his department was doing, he should have woken up at least by now.. 5 years after the sham deal.. No sir. He didn't

The very next day, the same Hindu Business line wrote yet another hard hitting article criticizing this deal. By then 2G was already hot in Tamil Nadu due to DMK involvement and our 'honest' Manmohan didn't bother to do anything. How can someone who already was hearing a mega scam 2G, could sit without any action when a national paper has published that- Another spectrum sold on the quiet
It is time the Government realized that a transparent mechanism is needed to supervise the sale of scarce assets. How much more explicit can a newspaper be to wake up a sleeping Sonia/Mannu combo? Still they slept :angry:That's mistake #4


Then when the whole country was boiling on 2G in December, when parliament was blocked due to JPC demand, ISRO warned the PMO about this S Band spectrum deal on December 2nd 2010. Still our Kumbhakarna 'very honest' PM didn't wake up! That was Mistake #5.

Now obviously he will run through the same scripts as 2G. Discredit CAG, blame other parties, plead that he was not in 'loop' (tough as it is his own department) etc. etc.

But the writing on the wall is clear. If the CAG can hold on to the numbers when a barrage of tactics are used in the upcoming days to discredit him, then we are seeing the beginning of end of Manmohan. Who knows? This could also be the ploy of Sonia to finally make way to her prince.

But let's pray to God... Please don't give India another 'honest' PM.. This remote controlled guy has caused already well over Rs.4,00,000,00,00,000 loss to India during his tenure. How much more can India afford to bleed? :cry:

Good research by Kirks

I think one of the other reports ( Rediff I think ) said that no other company was interested in this band , at that time