Palash Biswas
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Uninor petition points 2G gun again in PM-Chidu direction
It wasn't Andimuthu Raja's decision alone. The Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram were co-architects of the 2G licence-cum-spectrum allocation.This, in essence, is the submission of Norwegian telecom company Telenor whose 2G licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court on 2 February due to Raja's alleged hijacking of the policy. Telenor, which is the joint venture partner with Unitech in Uninor, has filed a review petition in the top court seeking a restoration of its licences using this argument.
Click here to read the entire article on Firstpost
http://www.2gscam.in/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G_spectrum_scam
Chidambara Doctrine, what if scam followed by scam, Welcome foreign capital!
Government of India incs decided to allow foreign companies to bid in the upcoming 2G spectrum auctions on their own without an Indian partner, ironically against the interest of Indian companies!Failed US economics does not teach a lesson as Chidambaram is the Indian Icon of War Civil War Ethnic Cleansing american economics replicated in the exclusive economy of India where topmost priority is recyling of black money all on the name of free foreign capital inflow to sustain the hegemony rule against the ninety nine percent excluded excommunicated masses.Already alleged to be involved in 2G spectrum scam, as finance minister afresh, as head of the EMOG, Chidambaram has opened yet another floodgate of scam!Hoping to ensure higher participation in the process that could yield it much-needed revenues for a deficit rating inflicted economy devoid of growth, production and highly dependent on service realty infrastructure IT sectors without any fiscal policy whatsoever and managed by extra constitutional elements against constitution and democratic norms practicing futile monetary exercises to balance isbalanced balance of payment!While the rules governing the telecom sector prohibit foreign firms from owning more than 74% of an Indian telecom company, the authorities will not insist on it as a pre-condition to participating in the bidding!Meanwhile,former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund Raghuram Rajan has been appointed as the chief economic advisor. Rajan will replace Kaushik Basu who left office earlier this month.Another IMF man inserted in the extra constitutional management team to manage already undermined Indian Economy.Rajan is known for his liberal views on foreign flows. He has also been vocal in his opposition of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR). In the past Rajan has emphasised that fuel prices should be deregulated and a hike in caps for FIIs in G-Secs and corporate bonds.Rajan has also batted for FDI wherever it is feasible and has also stressed on the need to be kinder towards foreign investors.Rajan's views will have bearing on policy making at the finance ministry.
Moreover, already proved to be a corporate game, the UID Project gets yet another corporate boost as UIDAI has awarded HCL Info the MSP contract to implement and manage the central id repository (CIDR).The contract which has been inked for a period of seven years will allow HCL Info to manage the entire end-to-end technology infrastructure of the UIDAI.HCL Infosystems will be responsible for procurement and installation of the IT infrastructure, implementation of information security management systems and operations support and maintenance.
Ramdev Lila better expresses the elements of scam economics as Ramdev's fast entered the third day on Saturday with the yoga guru threatening to intensify his agitation if his demands on black money and Lokpal bill are not met by the deadline set by him. Ramdev had set a three-day ultimatum, which ends on Saturday evening, to the government to address the issues raised by him when he launched his three-day fast on Thursday at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
"We will wait till evening (to hear from the government on our demands). Our three day deadline ends then. After that period is over, a roar will arise from this very Ramlila Maidan.
"We have not been taking names. But after then, we will take names who were in fault in this looting of country's wealth," he said addressing the crowd, whose count has been on the decline since yesterday.
On the other hand,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the downgrade of India's growth forecast by Moody's was a cause of concern but expressed hoped that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent economic growth.The Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC), C. Rangarajan, has said that global credit rating agencies had taken a "very pessimistic view" by cutting the growth forecast for India.
Contrarily,on the brink of breaching its borrowing limit with the World Bank, the government is planning to dig into its foreign exchange reserves to subscribe to a $4.3-billion special bond issue by the global lender.
"It is a cause of concern but one should not draw unwarranted conclusions," Mr Mr Singh told reporters when asked to comment on ratings agency Moody's analysis of the Indian economy.
Moody's research arm had scaled down its forecast for the country's economic growth this fiscal to 5.5 per cent earlier this week.Pulled down by a dismal show by the manufacturing sector, especially capital goods, industrial growth contracted by 1.8 per cent in June, the third such slide in four months, to reflect a further deterioration in the overall economic scenario.
However, Mr Singh expressed hopes that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent of economic growth.
"The fundamentals of Indian economy are strong. Investments and savings are among the highest in the world. I am hopeful, we will do still better than 6.5 per cent growth performance of last year," the Prime Minister said.
Moody's Analytics had said India's GDP growth rate is likely to be 5.5 per cent this year, while in 2013 growth is expected to be 6 per cent, adjusted from 6.2 per cent earlier.
"There has been little policy response from either the Reserve Bank of India or the government and with global uncertainty dragging on, we see nothing on the horizon to lift the economy from its funk," Moody's Analytics Senior Economist Glenn Levine had said.
Pranab Mukherjee elevated to the post of the president of India rejected the trickle down policy in his first address to the nation. But the Finance management does follow the policy with fullest commitment as Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan said,` India's per capita income can reach levels of USD 8000-10,000 by 2025 from the present USD 1600 if the economy grows at 9% annually'.
"As we look ahead, growth is an important factor in generating employment and reducing poverty", Rangarajan said in his address at the First Annual Convocation of the Indian Institute of technology, Hyderabad (IITH).
He said technology can play an important role in almost every sector of the economy in enhancing productivity and production.
"It has been estimated that only if we grow at 9% per annum, India's per capita GDP will increase from the current level of USD 1,600 to USD 8,000-10,000 by 2025," he added. India will become part of the middle income group of countries when it achieves USD 8000-USD 10,000 per capita income, he said.
Achieving and sustaining a high growth rate requires action on several fronts, he said adding technology upgradation is one among them. The economic advisor said the Indian economy is currently passing through a difficult phase with growth having slowed down and inflation remaining high.
The fiscal and current account deficits also stand at high level, he said. "These issues need to be addressed, if we have to achieve a sustained high growth rate.However, these developments should not cloud the fact that over the seven year period beginning 2005-06, the average annual growth rate has been 8.3%," he said.
Back to 2 G spectrum auction, it is decided that successful bidders are likely to get a 90-day window to induct a domestic partner and comply with the sectoral cap, the official said, adding this will be included in the Information Memorandum that will be circulated to all interested parties. The memorandum, an official document listing all auctions rules, will be released on August 27.
It is worser that Wiser after their bad experience funding telecom company bids for second-generation (2G) licences in 2008, Indian banks plan to act with extreme caution while giving money for the forthcoming spectrum auction.Specifically, keeping in mind SBI experience.They will insist on stricter technical evaluations of projects. Some banks are even considering employing external agencies to assess the viability of projects, and loans will be given only to those firms where promoters have a clean track record, most bankers said.
SBI shares continued to be under pressure, down over 4% at Rs 1889, even as chairman Pratip Chadhuri tried to draw attention to the positives in the first quarter performance. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender in the country, on Friday reported a 137% jump in profits for the quarter ended June at Rs3,752 crore, beating street expectations.Retail advances increased 12.83% to Rs186,322 crore as the mainstay home and auto loan segments grew 13.04% and 10.97%, respectively.
Net interest income (NII), or the difference between the interest earned and expended during the quarter, rose 14.63% on year to Rs11,119 crore.
At the outset, Chadhuri said that the numbers should be compared on a year-on-year basis and not quarter-on-quarter basis, as the first quarter is usually weak in terms of credit offtake. The net profit figure of Rs 3752 is the highest ever for the first quarter, and in absolute terms, only next to Reliance Industries quarterly net profit. Chadhuri claims a quarterly net profit of over Rs 3000 crore is the 'new normal' and that this performance can be sustained going forward. While conceding that loan loss provisions have been slightly higher at Rs 2790 crore, he says that the bank "did not have to scrimp on provisioning" and was able to "comfortably meet provisioning norms."
The bank restructured Rs 562 crore of loans during the quarter, and its cumulative restructured loan book stands at Rs 37,000. Going by past data on the percentage of The bank saw a jump in non-performing assets in its agri loan book, but Chadhuri is confident that much of those NPAs will be reversed in current quarter. That appears a tall order, given the looming drought situation in many parts of the country. Also, loans to the agri sector rose 26% during the June quarter.
Chadhuri says the small and medium enterprise segment poses a bigger threat of NPAs, than large corporates, where the bank has been able to check the rise in NPAs.
SBI was able to check rise in employee cost to around 6% on what Chaudhuri says is a "demographic dividend." About 7000 employees retired over the last year, and these have been replaced by employees drawing much lower salaries. Chaudhuri says the bank will be able to benefit from this trend for the next 10-15 years. The bank has also managed to limit the growth in other overheads to about 11%.
The bottomline got a boost from a Rs 521 crore appreciation in the mark-to-market value of its treasury portfolio. Also, Chadhuri says the banks equity portfolio has "stopped hemorrhaging."
But the market is not convinced yet. Most analysts see a huge spike in non-performing assets going forward, because of the slowing economy. Another reason for investors to be worried is that State Bank of India (and most state-owned banks for that matter) is more vulnerable to political meddling, compared to private sector banks. Market thinks there is a strong possibility of farm loan concessions (or even a waiver upto a certain threshold) because of deficient rainfall. With general elections less than two years away, other populist measures too will be in the offing.
Amidst telecom companies' crying foul and experts calling it expensive, TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar is still confident of a very successful 2G spectrum auction. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18's Siddarth Zarabi, he said that the government is free to set the reserve price and there is no reason to believe that the 'auction will be anything but successful'.(http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/expect-very-successful-2g-spectrum-auction_742210.html).
Defending the government's 2G reserve price, Khullar said, "When you got spectrum for a song nobody said we got it cheap and that is why we became rich."
On a very positive note, Khullar stressed "parties already told me they will bid in auction". He dismissed telecom's blame of high spectrum by adding that telecom companies cannot blame government for making wrong business decisions. "Industry not in trouble due to high cost of spectrum," he reiterated.
The cabinet had fixed a minimum or base price of Rs 14,000 crore for the Supreme Court mandated auction of telecom spectrum. The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, fixed the reserve price at the lower end of the Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore band that was recommended by an Empowered Group of Minister (EGoM).
Meanwhile Khullar assured that pricing of spectrum should not throttle competition and telecom companies will continue to see competition even post 2G auction.
The reserve price of Rs.14,000 crore/5 MHz set by the Union Cabinet for auction of pan-India 2G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band will eventually translate into a per Megahertz price far higher than even the CAG's evaluation in 2010, which had invited the government's wrath and scorn.(http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3739078.ece)
The other remarkable difference between 2008 and 2012, which also strengthens the CAG's loss estimates, is that while there were 575 new applications pending for the 121 spectrum slots ultimately allocated by Mr. Raja, there is hardly any new entrant in queue for the 44 new slots (two slots of 5 MHz each across 22 telecom circles) that are on offer this time around. Additionally, the availability of debt and money supply as well as interest from foreign investors is low in 2012 compared to 2008.This establishes that the CAG was correct in both its upper end calculation of the Rs.1.76 lakh-crore loss and methodology adopted as part of the audit report on the 2G spectrum sale in 2008 which was presented to Parliament on November 16, 2010.
Mind you,the CBI has started a probe into the hawala transactions allegedly linked to former telecom minister A Raja with the belief that a possible money trail could be unearthed in the spectrum allocation scam it was probing.
On December 16, 2010, the Supreme Court (Justices G.S. Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly, ) ordered a comprehensive and thorough investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into what has become notorious as "the 2G scam." The investigation, into spectrum allocation from 2001 to 2008, would be monitored by the judges.
One is reminded of the Jain hawala case (Vineet Narain vs UOI) in which the author was counsel for the petitioners and later designated as amicus curiae. In that case, the CBI chargeesheeted three Central Cabinet Ministers and the then Leader of the Opposition in January 1996 leading to their resignation. In May 1996, the serving Governors of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh were forced to resign and were charged. The fallout of all these resignations was described by the BBC as "the biggest political earthquake to have hit independent India." In the April 1996 elections, the Congress was reduced to 130-odd seats in the Lok Sabha and was voted out of office. However, all the prosecutions failed and most of the accused were discharged by the trial courts before the final judgment was delivered on December 18, 1997. (1998) 1 SCC 226).
The Supreme Court observed: "The recent experience in the field of prosecution is also discouraging. To emphasise this point, some reference has to be made to a large number of prosecutions launched as a result of monitoring by the court in this matter which have resulted in discharge of the accused at the threshold … These facts are sufficient to indicate that either the investigation or the prosecution or both were lacking" (Page 264-265, Para 50).
Indian external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had provided the CBI with details of hawala transactions allegedly linked to Raja and a Chennai based business group.
CBI sources said the note from RAW gives details of money laundering deals between a Dubai based individual and a Chennai-based business group.
The intelligence agency in its note has said that the Dubai based individual had established a number of front companies across the globe which are being used for such hawala transactions.
The agency which had carried out searches at the office of the business group has so far not named it directly in the telecom spectrum scam, sources said.
They said the new development might give them evidence about the way money earned through alleged illegal gratification was routed.
CBI sources claimed the RAW documents give details of overseas accounts which could be possibly linked to the former minister.
They said the office bearers of the business group might soon be called for questioning in connection with the case and send Letter Rogatory to some middle east countries seeking details of these bank accounts.
The CAG used the TRAI's May 2010 recommendations which benchmarked 2G spectrum for 3G auction prices to arrive at its loss estimate. The final 3G bid price was Rs. 3,350 crore/MHz, while the Cabinet has set the base value itself (after discounting the TRAI-recommended base price of Rs 18,100 crore) at Rs. 2,800 crore/MHz, with the expectation that the final bid price will be far higher.
The CAG report prompted the Supreme Court to ask why the then Telecom Minister, A. Raja, had not been questioned by the CBI. This led to his resignation just two days before the CAG report was formally released. Unprecedented protests in Parliament led by the Opposition in the winter session of 2010 and a national outcry swiftly took the 2G scam to centre stage as the biggest scam in India's history.
With the flames of the 2G fire threatening to spread to 7 Race Course Road, the new Telecom Minister, Kapil Sibal, held a press conference to demolish the CAG's calculations, using a five-step process to conclude that the 2G scam was a figment of people's imagination since in effect, there was "zero loss."
Mr. Sibal questioned the CAG's wisdom in comparing 2G with 3G spectrum, which, according to him, was like comparing a rural road with a highway. Highlighting the 'time gap' between 2G licensing in January 2008 and the 3G bidding in mid-2010, he raised doubts over the CAG's methodology. However, now, the same 2G spectrum that Mr. Raja allocated on a first come, first served process in January 2008 is being auctioned at a reserve price only marginally lower than the final bid received in the 3G auctions. Ironically, Mr. Sibal, who has spent the last 20 months defending his zero-loss theory, was not only part of the EGoM and the Cabinet which made this decision but also additionally confirmed that he expected the auctions to fetch much higher revenue.
This despite Mr. Sibal's explanation that the primary reason for avoiding market price/auction in 2008 was affordability and consumer interest. With the last 400 million — mostly the poor and lower middle class segments — left outside the mobile network, this affordability argument should have been far more pronounced today; except that the TRAI has mathematically demonstrated that a high auction price does not disturb affordable tariffs.
"The fixation of the reserve price by the Cabinet is a confessional statement that Mr. Sibal's zero-loss theory was all propaganda and zero merit. It totally vindicates the CAG and his 2G report of 2008," said Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had criticised the CAG along with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who gave several interviews against the loss estimates, including at The World Economic Forum in Davos in 2010. Eminent economists also participated in this exercise, while offering conservative loss estimates of Rs. 20,000-40,000 crore.
Meanwhile,the Centre on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking extension of time till November 12 for commencing auction to allocate 2G spectrum licences.
While quashing 123 licences, the court in February gave the government four months' time for conducting a fresh auction. On April 24, this time limit was extended till August 31.
In its application now, the Centre said it was committed to implementing the directions in the '2G judgment'. On the basis of the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Department of Telecommunications submitted to the Empowered Group of Ministers a report for consideration on the issues of appointment of the auctioneer; quantum of spectrum, number and size of blocks to be auctioned in 1800 and 800 MHz bands; rollout obligations to be imposed; terms of payment of auction-determined amount by successful bidders; reserve price and spectrum usage charges.
To conduct the auction for licence/spectrum as was done for 3G band, the government had drawn up an accelerated schedule, showing due regard for the procedural requirements. For 3G auction in 2010, the process took 542 days. The present process for 2G "contemplates that auction will be commenced within 97 days of the commencement of work by the auctioneer," the Centre said.
"Enough time needs to be given to bidders to enable them to take all steps to participate effectively in the auction including for raising funds/resources, obtaining internal approvals, etc" Only if sufficient time was provided would there be effective participation and proper discovery of the market price of spectrum. "In the absence of adequate time, the objective laid down in the 2G judgment for allocating spectrum through auction at market prices may not be fully achieved and the Government of India may be impacted adversely."
It seems amusing, however, as reported by Economics times that The finance ministry will strongly object to a plan to gift mobile phones to every family below the poverty line (BPL) on the ground the cash-strapped government cannot afford the Rs 7,000-crore scheme, a top ministry official told ET on condition of anonymity. In what could turn out to be its calling card for the 2014 general elections, the government is finalizing a Rs 7,000 crore scheme to give one mobile phone to every family living below the poverty line.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is believed to be evaluating the Planning Commission scheme, known as Har Hath Mein Phone, under which cellphones would be doled out to over 70 million BPL households along with 200 minutes of free local talk time. According to news reports earlier this week, the scheme might feature in the prime minister's Independence Day speech to the nation. But officials in the PMO say the scheme would not be announced on August 15.
According to Planning Commission estimates issued in 2012 based on a 2009-10 spending survey, India has 355 million poor households. Assuming a family of five, this means 71 million households.
The figure of Rs 7,000 crore appears to have been calculated assuming a price of 1,000 for each handset.
For many overseas telecom firms, the upcoming auction could well be the last opportunity to foray into the country's mobile sector. It is especially crucial for firms such as Norway's Telenor, which is keen to operate in telecom but is locked in a bitter dispute with its present partner, real estate firm Unitech, and wants out of the relationship.
The DoT will come up with the guidelines on telecom M&As and spectrum-sharing by end of October, sources said.
Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had decided to issue these guidelines by June but now these guidelines will be floated by October end, sources added.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in February has announced a liberal merger and acquisition regime in the sector allowing up to 35 per cent market share for the merged entity.
The government had decided to allow telecom operators share spectrum for services but total total quantum of spectrum, as a result of the spectrum sharing, should not exceed the limit prescribed in case of mergers of licences.
In those guidelines, the government had barred leasing of spectrum, sharing among 3G spectrum holder and trading of spectrum. Decision on matters related to pricing of spectrum post-sharing, were to be taken separately.
The government had also put a cap of 25 per cent on GSM spectrum that resultant company can have in a service area and limit of 10 Mhz in case of CDMA services.
Telenor said this week that it saw "no future for the partnership with Unitech" and intended to establish a new company with a new Indian partner. It hoped this new company would become a platform for it to participate in the spectrum auctions.
In India since 2008 and operating under the brand name Uninor, Telenor was one of the worst affected by the February 2 Supreme Court judgement that cancelled 122 licences issued by former telecom minister A Raja using a controversial first-come-first-served policy.
In that judgement, the court had ordered the government to issue new permits through auctions, much like the 3G and broadband wireless spectrum auctions of 2010.
"Since companies were permitted to bid without an Indian partner during the earlier auctions, we have decided to extend this option again to ensure that the government is in compliance with the SC order," the telecom department official said.
After the broadband wireless auctions of 2010, the government gave US-based chipmaker Qualcomm, which won airwaves in four circles for about Rs 5,000 crore, a six-month window to bring down its stake to 74%. But the process took close to two years and also saw Qualcomm drag the telecom department to court to get its permits. This time around, the government is determined to not let matters drag on like the Qualcomm incident and plans to have a fixed timeframe for foreign firms to rope in Indian partners, the DoT official said.
The government is hoping that interest among international players to participate will be high as this auction may well be the last of 2G spectrum.
– The return of a pro-market reformer to India's finance ministry has cheered investors and contributed to a market rally, but Palaniappan Chidambaram will need both political deftness and some luck to tackle the problems dragging the economy down.
Faced with impatient financial markets and the threat that India's credit rating could be cut to junk, Chidambaram has wasted no time since moving into his old ministry last week.He has ordered a review of retrospective tax rules that had panicked foreign investors and sidelined officials behind those rules. And, in his first public comments, the Harvard-educated former lawyer vowed to fill a gaping hole in the budget and ease the burden of high interest rates on consumers.In what is perhaps testament to his nimble media management, newspapers have somehow got wind of new early-morning starts and long hours for officials at the previously laid-back ministry.
During his last stint at finance, Chidambaram oversaw India's fastest growth surge in the past two decades that helped steer the economy through the worst of the global financial crisis. But this time, Chidambaram's task is more daunting.
Industrial output has fallen from year-earlier levels in three out of the last four months, and a summer drought has triggered a slew of cuts in growth forecasts, with economists predicting this year's economic expansion as low as 5.4 percent, the worst in a decade.He also inherits the political constraints that stymied his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee's efforts to push major reforms.
Bills that would bring crucial financial-sector reforms were removed from the agenda of the current parliament session because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to win support for them from coalition allies and even some in his own party.
Efforts to allow foreign supermarkets to set up in India have also run into opposition because, although such a step would ease supply-side bottlenecks in an inflation-plagued economy, political parties fear it would cost jobs – and votes.
"Things are easier said than done in India," says Robert Prior-Wandesforde, an economist with Credit Suisse in Singapore, referring to New Delhi's repeated reneging on promises.
"Rather than promising and running the risk of not delivering. I would like to see him delivering, then talking."
FISCAL TEST
To help him deliver, Chidambaram may appoint former International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Raghuram Rajan as his chief economic adviser. Rajan, currently a professor at Chicago University's Booth School of Business, is credited for predicting the 2008 global financial crisis and is a vocal critic of New Delhi's populist policies.
The new minister's biggest test will be controlling the fiscal deficit, which overshot a target of 4.6 percent of GDP by 1.2 percentage points in 2011/12 due to slowing growth and increased spending on fuel and fertiliser subsidies.
India's sovereign credit rating is at risk because of the high fiscal deficit, whose funding from domestic savings is crowding out private investment and lowering growth prospects.
However, a drought due to disappointing monsoon rains will push the government to spend more on relief for farmers. Rural demand for cheap fuel to drive irrigation pumps and tractors has further delayed a promised increase in subsidised diesel prices, which the government concedes is vital to fixing the deficit.
Privately, finance ministry officials warn a lack of action on subsidies could push the deficit to 6 percent of GDP this fiscal year, above the government's target of 5.1 percent.
"Without addressing the issue of fuel subsidies, fiscal consolidation is not possible," a senior official at the Finance Ministry said, adding that the budgeted fuel subsidy bill of 436 billion rupees would nearly double if prices are not raised.
To ease the pressure, Chidambaram is looking at shoring up revenues through more efficient tax collections, the auction of cancelled second-generation mobile phone licences and sales of stakes in state-run firms. But that may not be enough.
Tax revenues are under pressure from the economic slowdown. Plans to raise 300 billion rupees through partial privatisations this year have gone nowhere so far and much will depend on how equity markets perform.
Chidambaram's best hope is a bonanza from an auction of mobile airwaves, which could fetch more than the budgeted 400 billion rupees.
"The government will have to rely on the disinvestment programme and the proceeds from the spectrum auction for overall fiscal management. If they are good, overall fiscal slippage can be contained within a reasonable limit," said Siddhartha Sanyal, an economist at Barclays Capital in Mumbai.
A failure to check the deficit would make it tougher for the minister to convince the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to lower interest rates further. The RBI has left rates steady for two straight reviews, asking the government to do its bit to revive the economy.
But Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Investments and Advisors Ltd., says further economic deceleration could force a re-think at the RBI.
"We are worrying about peripherals. We are forgetting the epicenter. Epicenter is growth, growth and growth," he said.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, as well as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who had sought to talk the economy up at his maiden press briefing earlier this week, dubbed the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) numbers for June as "disappointing" while India Inc. found enough powder in the data to clamour for immediate policy action to prevent a further slide.
Reiterating the need to promote critical sectors to boost growth, Mr. Chidambaram, in a statement, said: "The Quick Estimates of IIP for the month of June are disappointing.
"It is important to focus on the critical sectors, remove bottlenecks, and give a fillip to production…The production will revive if there are new investments in the demand creating industries."
Mr. Ahluwalia, however, found no reason to be very optimistic. "The industrial numbers have been disappointing for the first few months...I do not see robust industrial growth in the current fiscal," he said while hoping that the initiatives announced by the Finance Minister on August 6 should help in boosting the economy during the second half of the fiscal year.
In fact, the IIP data released here on Thursday reveal such a dismal industrial growth scenario that Mr. Chidambaram will have to quickly translate the initiatives announced by him into action to boost investor confidence and investments to retrieve the situation.
As per the data, industrial growth in June declined to minus 1.8 per cent from a robust expansion of 9.5 per cent in the same month a year ago.
Consequently, the cumulative IIP growth during the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal stands pegged at minus 0.1 per cent as compared to a far healthier 6.9 per cent growth achieved in the same period last fiscal. In particular, the slide in factory output has been mainly on account of the capital goods sector showing up with a negative growth of 27.9 per cent in June.
No surprise, therefore, that the manufacturing sector as a whole ended up in negative territory with a 3.2 per cent contraction in growth during June.
The poor June performance of the manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the IIP basket, also reflected in the April-June quarter with a decline by 0.7 per cent in growth as compared to a 7.7 per cent growth in the same quarter of 2011-12. Likewise, capital goods output also contracted by 19.6 per cent during the three-month period this fiscal as compared to a robust expansion of 17 per cent witnessed in the same period last fiscal.
POLICY ACTION NEEDED
Industry chambers, which had been alerting the government of the dismal situation over the past few months, expressed disappointment and demanded immediate policy actions to arrest further slippages.
Apex chamber FICCI called for a cut in interest rates to revive demand and boost investment. "There is a strong case for the RBI to cut interest rates further at least by 50 basis points immediately so as to encourage investments," FICCI President R. V. Kanoria said.
As for the other segments of the IIP, mining output in June grew by just 0.6 per cent against a contraction of 1.4 per cent in the same month a year ago while its production in the April-June quarter declined by 1.1 per cent compared to a growth of 0.6 per cent in 2011-12.
POWER GENERATION
Power generation saw a growth of 8.8 per cent during June, a tad higher than the 8 per cent increase logged in the same month a year ago. Electricity generation increased by 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal as against 8.3 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.
Meanwhile, the industrial growth rate for May, 2012, has been revised upwards to 2.53 per cent, from the provisional estimates of 2.4 per cent.
Months after former chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu had to eat his words for using the phrase 'policy paralysis', comes the same from a more important source. And this time, there's no question of eating, no matter the change in phraseology.
In a background paper prepared for parliamentarians, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has painted a grim picture of the current economic situation and policy options. It states for a revival in investor confidence, there is a need to address concerns "over policy stasis" while putting in place "complementary actions that address macro-economic weaknesses."
The RBI's choice of the word 'stasis' instead of 'paralysis' is indeed inspired erudition. The dictionary meaning of the noun is "inactivity caused by opposing equal forces".
Quite apposite, compared with paralysis, which means a person or organisation's inability to act. Scripted after P Chidambaram's return to the finance ministry, the paper said the economy is bedeviled by several concerns.
The major monetary policy challenge has been inflation that continues to be high even as economic growth is slowing down and has already eroded domestic purchasing power. This has forced a slowdown in consumption demand.
"The growth risks in 2012-13 have been amplified due to decelerating global trade and domestic supply constraints, with inflation risks remaining high due to suppressed inflation, poor supply responses and deficit monsoon conditions," the RBI said.
In the context of inflation, particularly food inflation, the RBI is worried by the twin factors of a poor southwest monsoon and the increase (15% to 53%) in the minimum support price (MSP) for different agricultural produce. An increase in the MSP translates into a corresponding rise in their market prices.
The RBI expects global growth and trade volumes to be lower than projected earlier, and given India's greater integration with the global economy, this would have an adverse impact on growth in the industry and services sector.
The RBI said the fiscal and monetary space to stimulate the economy is limited because of the already high fiscal deficit and persistently high inflation. "The fiscal deficit target for 2012-13 is at a risk of being breached due to the likely overshooting of subsidies and shortfall in receipts," it said.
The finance minister will also be hamstrung by the political constraints in implementing the RBI's prescription that fiscal space can be created by curtailing subsidies and significantly boosting government's capital expenditures to provide an investment stimulus.
The RBI underscored that coupled with erosion in corporate profit margins there is a major decline in investment, particularly private corporate investment that is a major drag on the demand side.
Reserve Bank deputy governor HR Khan on Friday blamed the deficit in leadership and legal issues among factors inhibiting growth in the employment-friendly manufacturing sector.
"Everybody is talking of a leadership deficit... We have the right type of entrepreneurs, the right type of aptitude, but the leadership deficit is the number one factor," Khan said at a Federal Bank event here.
Listing seven factors hurting the all important manufacturing sector, Khan said more needs to be done to correct these flaws.
"We are in a very difficult phase of our economic history. We are passing through tough times," he said.
He said that another deficit stopping the progress of the nation is the lack of vibrance in the manufacturing sector, where the country is targeting creation of 100 million jobs by 2022, as part of the National Manufacturing Policy.
"We have a legal deficit in terms of contracts, in terms of policies, in terms of laws we have, including the law for liquidation... Suppose a company is not doing well, there should be a smooth path for liquidation," Khan said.
The deputy governor's comments come amidst talks of a leadership and "policy paralysis" within the industry and academia for the economy's ills.
Khan also blamed problems in fuel linkages for the power sector and other issues related to infrastructure as factors harming manufacturing growth. He said land acquisition, learning or skill-sets and labour are other difficulties which needed to be sorted out.
The last of the deficits in Khan's list was liquidity and he said that the RBI will do everything possible to maintain a steady flow of credit to the productive sector.
Duvvuri Subbarao got his two-year extension as RBI governor in August 2011. One year has passed and he appears to be in his final innings. Subbarao became governor in 2008 at the peak of the credit crisis. He came in when the response mechanism for fighting the downturn in the wake of the credit crisis was already put in place by his predecessor Yaga Venugopal Reddy. The response ensured that India's GDP did not fall below six per cent. In fact, even during the worst period of the crisis, India was able to pull through with little negative business sentiment. This time, Subbarao came roaring against inflation, pushed up interest rates and pulled back investment. Gross fixed capital formation is down to 28.6 per cent. When the first quarter GDP estimates are announced this month, investment is unlikely to have improved, going by credit offtake figures. If the purpose of interest rate hikes was to slow GDP growth and contain inflation, only the former objective has been met. The latter objective still remains far from being contained. Food inflation continues to hammer where it hurts, with food budgets as a component of household incomes at almost 60 per cent. It's worse in rural areas. It is easy to blame the euro zone crisis, but Europe can only take part responsibility. The Indian economy is largely driven by domestic consumption. Therefore, inflation responses cannot be on the same lines as in Europe or in the US. It is not that RBI does not have non-interest tools to contain inflation. Subbarao has those tools and the powers to deploy them. One mechanism would be to use selective credit controls or changing risk weightage of certain advances, especially trader credits. Selective credit control remains a tool to be used, especially in view of the large margins between farm gate, wholesalers and retailers. Ever wondered why it's cheaper to buy potatoes directly at wayside villages than the neighbourhood retailer? This is the impact of trader margin that accounts for almost 60 per cent of price loading. Neither RBI nor the government can deny that. Had selective controls been used, they would have struck directly at these margins. At the same time, credit would have been made available for investment, without compromising growth. Going by all the estimates till date, GDP growth is unlikely to hit six per cent. Worse, sinking growth will drive up bad loans as markets shrink and costs rise. There are now more distressed debtors in the country than in 2008, or even 2009. Subbarao can act at the cost of upsetting his bosses. But then, his real bosses are not in North Block. They are the 1.2 billion citizens who still believe that RBI is the watchdog against inflation and a doctor to rejuvenate the economy. Subbarao still has a year to go. He can meet those aspirations or leave with the economy in a deeper mess.
The 2G spectrum scam involved government officials in India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would then use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be
176,645 crore (US$31.97 billion), as valued by theComptroller and Auditor General of India based on 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices in 2010.[1] However, the exact loss is disputed. In a chargesheet filed on 2 April 2011 by the investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the loss was pegged at 
30,984.55 crore (US$5.61 billion)[2] Kapil Sibal, the Minister of communications & IT, claimed in 2011, during a press conference, that "zero loss" was caused by distributing 2G licenses on a dubious first-come-first-served basis instead of by transparent auction process.[3]
The original plan for awarding licences was to follow a first-come-first-served policy to applicants. Mr Raja manipulated the rules so that the first-come-first-served policy would kick in - not on the basis of who applied first for a license, but who complied with the conditions.[4] On 10 January 2008, companies were given just a few hours to provide their Letters of Intent and cheques. Those allegedly tipped off by Mr Raja were waiting with their cheques and other documents. Some of their executives were sent to jail along with the Minister himself.[4]
In 2011, Time magazine listed the scam at number two on their "Top 10 Abuses of Power" list (just behind the Watergate scandal).[5][6][7]
1,537 crore (US$278.2 million) and then it sold 45% stake to UAE based company Etisalat for 
4,200 crore (US$760.2 million).[10]Unitech Wireless, a subsidiary of the Unitech Group, got license for 
1,661 crore (US$300.64 million) and later sold 60% stake for 
6,200 crore (US$1.12 billion) to Norway based company Telenor.[10]
Following is the list of companies who received 2G licenses during the tenure of A. Raja as Telecom Minister.[13][14] (The licenses were later quashed by Supreme Court)[15][16]
Media sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that two senior journalists Barkha Dutt (Group Editor of NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi(Editorial Director of Hindustan Times) knew that corporate lobbyist Nira Radia was influencing the decisions of appointment of telecom minister. Radia wanted A Raja to be made telecom minister.[80] The two magazines made public the telephone conversations betweenNira Radia, Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi.[81][82] Radia's phones were being tapped by Income Tax department. Critics allege that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew about nexus between government and the media industry but still they supported this corrupt activity and suppressed news reporting the discovery of the corrupt practice.[80] However these people were not named as accused in the chargesheet filed by Income Tax Department, but were investigated by the CBI.[citation needed]
The Supreme Court said in its order that then telecom minister A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and listed seven steps he took to ensure this happened.[205][207] According to the Supreme Court of India the seven steps were :
Chidambara Doctrine, what if scam followed by scam, Welcome foreign capital!
Government of India incs decided to allow foreign companies to bid in the upcoming 2G spectrum auctions on their own without an Indian partner, ironically against the interest of Indian companies!Failed US economics does not teach a lesson as Chidambaram is the Indian Icon of War Civil War Ethnic Cleansing american economics replicated in the exclusive economy of India where topmost priority is recyling of black money all on the name of free foreign capital inflow to sustain the hegemony rule against the ninety nine percent excluded excommunicated masses.Already alleged to be involved in 2G spectrum scam, as finance minister afresh, as head of the EMOG, Chidambaram has opened yet another floodgate of scam!Hoping to ensure higher participation in the process that could yield it much-needed revenues for a deficit rating inflicted economy devoid of growth, production and highly dependent on service realty infrastructure IT sectors without any fiscal policy whatsoever and managed by extra constitutional elements against constitution and democratic norms practicing futile monetary exercises to balance isbalanced balance of payment!While the rules governing the telecom sector prohibit foreign firms from owning more than 74% of an Indian telecom company, the authorities will not insist on it as a pre-condition to participating in the bidding!Meanwhile,former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund Raghuram Rajan has been appointed as the chief economic advisor. Rajan will replace Kaushik Basu who left office earlier this month.Another IMF man inserted in the extra constitutional management team to manage already undermined Indian Economy.Rajan is known for his liberal views on foreign flows. He has also been vocal in his opposition of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR). In the past Rajan has emphasised that fuel prices should be deregulated and a hike in caps for FIIs in G-Secs and corporate bonds.Rajan has also batted for FDI wherever it is feasible and has also stressed on the need to be kinder towards foreign investors.Rajan's views will have bearing on policy making at the finance ministry.
Moreover, already proved to be a corporate game, the UID Project gets yet another corporate boost as UIDAI has awarded HCL Info the MSP contract to implement and manage the central id repository (CIDR).The contract which has been inked for a period of seven years will allow HCL Info to manage the entire end-to-end technology infrastructure of the UIDAI.HCL Infosystems will be responsible for procurement and installation of the IT infrastructure, implementation of information security management systems and operations support and maintenance.
Ramdev Lila better expresses the elements of scam economics as Ramdev's fast entered the third day on Saturday with the yoga guru threatening to intensify his agitation if his demands on black money and Lokpal bill are not met by the deadline set by him. Ramdev had set a three-day ultimatum, which ends on Saturday evening, to the government to address the issues raised by him when he launched his three-day fast on Thursday at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
"We will wait till evening (to hear from the government on our demands). Our three day deadline ends then. After that period is over, a roar will arise from this very Ramlila Maidan.
"We have not been taking names. But after then, we will take names who were in fault in this looting of country's wealth," he said addressing the crowd, whose count has been on the decline since yesterday.
On the other hand,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the downgrade of India's growth forecast by Moody's was a cause of concern but expressed hoped that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent economic growth.The Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC), C. Rangarajan, has said that global credit rating agencies had taken a "very pessimistic view" by cutting the growth forecast for India.
Contrarily,on the brink of breaching its borrowing limit with the World Bank, the government is planning to dig into its foreign exchange reserves to subscribe to a $4.3-billion special bond issue by the global lender.
"It is a cause of concern but one should not draw unwarranted conclusions," Mr Mr Singh told reporters when asked to comment on ratings agency Moody's analysis of the Indian economy.
Moody's research arm had scaled down its forecast for the country's economic growth this fiscal to 5.5 per cent earlier this week.Pulled down by a dismal show by the manufacturing sector, especially capital goods, industrial growth contracted by 1.8 per cent in June, the third such slide in four months, to reflect a further deterioration in the overall economic scenario.
However, Mr Singh expressed hopes that India would better last year's 6.5 per cent of economic growth.
"The fundamentals of Indian economy are strong. Investments and savings are among the highest in the world. I am hopeful, we will do still better than 6.5 per cent growth performance of last year," the Prime Minister said.
Moody's Analytics had said India's GDP growth rate is likely to be 5.5 per cent this year, while in 2013 growth is expected to be 6 per cent, adjusted from 6.2 per cent earlier.
"There has been little policy response from either the Reserve Bank of India or the government and with global uncertainty dragging on, we see nothing on the horizon to lift the economy from its funk," Moody's Analytics Senior Economist Glenn Levine had said.
Pranab Mukherjee elevated to the post of the president of India rejected the trickle down policy in his first address to the nation. But the Finance management does follow the policy with fullest commitment as Chairman of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan said,` India's per capita income can reach levels of USD 8000-10,000 by 2025 from the present USD 1600 if the economy grows at 9% annually'.
"As we look ahead, growth is an important factor in generating employment and reducing poverty", Rangarajan said in his address at the First Annual Convocation of the Indian Institute of technology, Hyderabad (IITH).
He said technology can play an important role in almost every sector of the economy in enhancing productivity and production.
"It has been estimated that only if we grow at 9% per annum, India's per capita GDP will increase from the current level of USD 1,600 to USD 8,000-10,000 by 2025," he added. India will become part of the middle income group of countries when it achieves USD 8000-USD 10,000 per capita income, he said.
Achieving and sustaining a high growth rate requires action on several fronts, he said adding technology upgradation is one among them. The economic advisor said the Indian economy is currently passing through a difficult phase with growth having slowed down and inflation remaining high.
The fiscal and current account deficits also stand at high level, he said. "These issues need to be addressed, if we have to achieve a sustained high growth rate.However, these developments should not cloud the fact that over the seven year period beginning 2005-06, the average annual growth rate has been 8.3%," he said.
Back to 2 G spectrum auction, it is decided that successful bidders are likely to get a 90-day window to induct a domestic partner and comply with the sectoral cap, the official said, adding this will be included in the Information Memorandum that will be circulated to all interested parties. The memorandum, an official document listing all auctions rules, will be released on August 27.
It is worser that Wiser after their bad experience funding telecom company bids for second-generation (2G) licences in 2008, Indian banks plan to act with extreme caution while giving money for the forthcoming spectrum auction.Specifically, keeping in mind SBI experience.They will insist on stricter technical evaluations of projects. Some banks are even considering employing external agencies to assess the viability of projects, and loans will be given only to those firms where promoters have a clean track record, most bankers said.
SBI shares continued to be under pressure, down over 4% at Rs 1889, even as chairman Pratip Chadhuri tried to draw attention to the positives in the first quarter performance. State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender in the country, on Friday reported a 137% jump in profits for the quarter ended June at Rs3,752 crore, beating street expectations.Retail advances increased 12.83% to Rs186,322 crore as the mainstay home and auto loan segments grew 13.04% and 10.97%, respectively.
Net interest income (NII), or the difference between the interest earned and expended during the quarter, rose 14.63% on year to Rs11,119 crore.
At the outset, Chadhuri said that the numbers should be compared on a year-on-year basis and not quarter-on-quarter basis, as the first quarter is usually weak in terms of credit offtake. The net profit figure of Rs 3752 is the highest ever for the first quarter, and in absolute terms, only next to Reliance Industries quarterly net profit. Chadhuri claims a quarterly net profit of over Rs 3000 crore is the 'new normal' and that this performance can be sustained going forward. While conceding that loan loss provisions have been slightly higher at Rs 2790 crore, he says that the bank "did not have to scrimp on provisioning" and was able to "comfortably meet provisioning norms."
The bank restructured Rs 562 crore of loans during the quarter, and its cumulative restructured loan book stands at Rs 37,000. Going by past data on the percentage of The bank saw a jump in non-performing assets in its agri loan book, but Chadhuri is confident that much of those NPAs will be reversed in current quarter. That appears a tall order, given the looming drought situation in many parts of the country. Also, loans to the agri sector rose 26% during the June quarter.
Chadhuri says the small and medium enterprise segment poses a bigger threat of NPAs, than large corporates, where the bank has been able to check the rise in NPAs.
SBI was able to check rise in employee cost to around 6% on what Chaudhuri says is a "demographic dividend." About 7000 employees retired over the last year, and these have been replaced by employees drawing much lower salaries. Chaudhuri says the bank will be able to benefit from this trend for the next 10-15 years. The bank has also managed to limit the growth in other overheads to about 11%.
The bottomline got a boost from a Rs 521 crore appreciation in the mark-to-market value of its treasury portfolio. Also, Chadhuri says the banks equity portfolio has "stopped hemorrhaging."
But the market is not convinced yet. Most analysts see a huge spike in non-performing assets going forward, because of the slowing economy. Another reason for investors to be worried is that State Bank of India (and most state-owned banks for that matter) is more vulnerable to political meddling, compared to private sector banks. Market thinks there is a strong possibility of farm loan concessions (or even a waiver upto a certain threshold) because of deficient rainfall. With general elections less than two years away, other populist measures too will be in the offing.
Amidst telecom companies' crying foul and experts calling it expensive, TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar is still confident of a very successful 2G spectrum auction. In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18's Siddarth Zarabi, he said that the government is free to set the reserve price and there is no reason to believe that the 'auction will be anything but successful'.(http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/expect-very-successful-2g-spectrum-auction_742210.html).
Defending the government's 2G reserve price, Khullar said, "When you got spectrum for a song nobody said we got it cheap and that is why we became rich."
On a very positive note, Khullar stressed "parties already told me they will bid in auction". He dismissed telecom's blame of high spectrum by adding that telecom companies cannot blame government for making wrong business decisions. "Industry not in trouble due to high cost of spectrum," he reiterated.
The cabinet had fixed a minimum or base price of Rs 14,000 crore for the Supreme Court mandated auction of telecom spectrum. The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, fixed the reserve price at the lower end of the Rs 14,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore band that was recommended by an Empowered Group of Minister (EGoM).
Meanwhile Khullar assured that pricing of spectrum should not throttle competition and telecom companies will continue to see competition even post 2G auction.
The reserve price of Rs.14,000 crore/5 MHz set by the Union Cabinet for auction of pan-India 2G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band will eventually translate into a per Megahertz price far higher than even the CAG's evaluation in 2010, which had invited the government's wrath and scorn.(http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3739078.ece)
The other remarkable difference between 2008 and 2012, which also strengthens the CAG's loss estimates, is that while there were 575 new applications pending for the 121 spectrum slots ultimately allocated by Mr. Raja, there is hardly any new entrant in queue for the 44 new slots (two slots of 5 MHz each across 22 telecom circles) that are on offer this time around. Additionally, the availability of debt and money supply as well as interest from foreign investors is low in 2012 compared to 2008.This establishes that the CAG was correct in both its upper end calculation of the Rs.1.76 lakh-crore loss and methodology adopted as part of the audit report on the 2G spectrum sale in 2008 which was presented to Parliament on November 16, 2010.
Mind you,the CBI has started a probe into the hawala transactions allegedly linked to former telecom minister A Raja with the belief that a possible money trail could be unearthed in the spectrum allocation scam it was probing.
On December 16, 2010, the Supreme Court (Justices G.S. Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly, ) ordered a comprehensive and thorough investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate into what has become notorious as "the 2G scam." The investigation, into spectrum allocation from 2001 to 2008, would be monitored by the judges.
One is reminded of the Jain hawala case (Vineet Narain vs UOI) in which the author was counsel for the petitioners and later designated as amicus curiae. In that case, the CBI chargeesheeted three Central Cabinet Ministers and the then Leader of the Opposition in January 1996 leading to their resignation. In May 1996, the serving Governors of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh were forced to resign and were charged. The fallout of all these resignations was described by the BBC as "the biggest political earthquake to have hit independent India." In the April 1996 elections, the Congress was reduced to 130-odd seats in the Lok Sabha and was voted out of office. However, all the prosecutions failed and most of the accused were discharged by the trial courts before the final judgment was delivered on December 18, 1997. (1998) 1 SCC 226).
The Supreme Court observed: "The recent experience in the field of prosecution is also discouraging. To emphasise this point, some reference has to be made to a large number of prosecutions launched as a result of monitoring by the court in this matter which have resulted in discharge of the accused at the threshold … These facts are sufficient to indicate that either the investigation or the prosecution or both were lacking" (Page 264-265, Para 50).
Indian external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had provided the CBI with details of hawala transactions allegedly linked to Raja and a Chennai based business group.
CBI sources said the note from RAW gives details of money laundering deals between a Dubai based individual and a Chennai-based business group.
The intelligence agency in its note has said that the Dubai based individual had established a number of front companies across the globe which are being used for such hawala transactions.
The agency which had carried out searches at the office of the business group has so far not named it directly in the telecom spectrum scam, sources said.
They said the new development might give them evidence about the way money earned through alleged illegal gratification was routed.
CBI sources claimed the RAW documents give details of overseas accounts which could be possibly linked to the former minister.
They said the office bearers of the business group might soon be called for questioning in connection with the case and send Letter Rogatory to some middle east countries seeking details of these bank accounts.
The CAG used the TRAI's May 2010 recommendations which benchmarked 2G spectrum for 3G auction prices to arrive at its loss estimate. The final 3G bid price was Rs. 3,350 crore/MHz, while the Cabinet has set the base value itself (after discounting the TRAI-recommended base price of Rs 18,100 crore) at Rs. 2,800 crore/MHz, with the expectation that the final bid price will be far higher.
The CAG report prompted the Supreme Court to ask why the then Telecom Minister, A. Raja, had not been questioned by the CBI. This led to his resignation just two days before the CAG report was formally released. Unprecedented protests in Parliament led by the Opposition in the winter session of 2010 and a national outcry swiftly took the 2G scam to centre stage as the biggest scam in India's history.
With the flames of the 2G fire threatening to spread to 7 Race Course Road, the new Telecom Minister, Kapil Sibal, held a press conference to demolish the CAG's calculations, using a five-step process to conclude that the 2G scam was a figment of people's imagination since in effect, there was "zero loss."
Mr. Sibal questioned the CAG's wisdom in comparing 2G with 3G spectrum, which, according to him, was like comparing a rural road with a highway. Highlighting the 'time gap' between 2G licensing in January 2008 and the 3G bidding in mid-2010, he raised doubts over the CAG's methodology. However, now, the same 2G spectrum that Mr. Raja allocated on a first come, first served process in January 2008 is being auctioned at a reserve price only marginally lower than the final bid received in the 3G auctions. Ironically, Mr. Sibal, who has spent the last 20 months defending his zero-loss theory, was not only part of the EGoM and the Cabinet which made this decision but also additionally confirmed that he expected the auctions to fetch much higher revenue.
This despite Mr. Sibal's explanation that the primary reason for avoiding market price/auction in 2008 was affordability and consumer interest. With the last 400 million — mostly the poor and lower middle class segments — left outside the mobile network, this affordability argument should have been far more pronounced today; except that the TRAI has mathematically demonstrated that a high auction price does not disturb affordable tariffs.
"The fixation of the reserve price by the Cabinet is a confessional statement that Mr. Sibal's zero-loss theory was all propaganda and zero merit. It totally vindicates the CAG and his 2G report of 2008," said Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself had criticised the CAG along with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who gave several interviews against the loss estimates, including at The World Economic Forum in Davos in 2010. Eminent economists also participated in this exercise, while offering conservative loss estimates of Rs. 20,000-40,000 crore.
Meanwhile,the Centre on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking extension of time till November 12 for commencing auction to allocate 2G spectrum licences.
While quashing 123 licences, the court in February gave the government four months' time for conducting a fresh auction. On April 24, this time limit was extended till August 31.
In its application now, the Centre said it was committed to implementing the directions in the '2G judgment'. On the basis of the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Department of Telecommunications submitted to the Empowered Group of Ministers a report for consideration on the issues of appointment of the auctioneer; quantum of spectrum, number and size of blocks to be auctioned in 1800 and 800 MHz bands; rollout obligations to be imposed; terms of payment of auction-determined amount by successful bidders; reserve price and spectrum usage charges.
To conduct the auction for licence/spectrum as was done for 3G band, the government had drawn up an accelerated schedule, showing due regard for the procedural requirements. For 3G auction in 2010, the process took 542 days. The present process for 2G "contemplates that auction will be commenced within 97 days of the commencement of work by the auctioneer," the Centre said.
"Enough time needs to be given to bidders to enable them to take all steps to participate effectively in the auction including for raising funds/resources, obtaining internal approvals, etc" Only if sufficient time was provided would there be effective participation and proper discovery of the market price of spectrum. "In the absence of adequate time, the objective laid down in the 2G judgment for allocating spectrum through auction at market prices may not be fully achieved and the Government of India may be impacted adversely."
It seems amusing, however, as reported by Economics times that The finance ministry will strongly object to a plan to gift mobile phones to every family below the poverty line (BPL) on the ground the cash-strapped government cannot afford the Rs 7,000-crore scheme, a top ministry official told ET on condition of anonymity. In what could turn out to be its calling card for the 2014 general elections, the government is finalizing a Rs 7,000 crore scheme to give one mobile phone to every family living below the poverty line.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is believed to be evaluating the Planning Commission scheme, known as Har Hath Mein Phone, under which cellphones would be doled out to over 70 million BPL households along with 200 minutes of free local talk time. According to news reports earlier this week, the scheme might feature in the prime minister's Independence Day speech to the nation. But officials in the PMO say the scheme would not be announced on August 15.
According to Planning Commission estimates issued in 2012 based on a 2009-10 spending survey, India has 355 million poor households. Assuming a family of five, this means 71 million households.
The figure of Rs 7,000 crore appears to have been calculated assuming a price of 1,000 for each handset.
For many overseas telecom firms, the upcoming auction could well be the last opportunity to foray into the country's mobile sector. It is especially crucial for firms such as Norway's Telenor, which is keen to operate in telecom but is locked in a bitter dispute with its present partner, real estate firm Unitech, and wants out of the relationship.
The DoT will come up with the guidelines on telecom M&As and spectrum-sharing by end of October, sources said.
Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had decided to issue these guidelines by June but now these guidelines will be floated by October end, sources added.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal in February has announced a liberal merger and acquisition regime in the sector allowing up to 35 per cent market share for the merged entity.
The government had decided to allow telecom operators share spectrum for services but total total quantum of spectrum, as a result of the spectrum sharing, should not exceed the limit prescribed in case of mergers of licences.
In those guidelines, the government had barred leasing of spectrum, sharing among 3G spectrum holder and trading of spectrum. Decision on matters related to pricing of spectrum post-sharing, were to be taken separately.
The government had also put a cap of 25 per cent on GSM spectrum that resultant company can have in a service area and limit of 10 Mhz in case of CDMA services.
Telenor said this week that it saw "no future for the partnership with Unitech" and intended to establish a new company with a new Indian partner. It hoped this new company would become a platform for it to participate in the spectrum auctions.
In India since 2008 and operating under the brand name Uninor, Telenor was one of the worst affected by the February 2 Supreme Court judgement that cancelled 122 licences issued by former telecom minister A Raja using a controversial first-come-first-served policy.
In that judgement, the court had ordered the government to issue new permits through auctions, much like the 3G and broadband wireless spectrum auctions of 2010.
"Since companies were permitted to bid without an Indian partner during the earlier auctions, we have decided to extend this option again to ensure that the government is in compliance with the SC order," the telecom department official said.
After the broadband wireless auctions of 2010, the government gave US-based chipmaker Qualcomm, which won airwaves in four circles for about Rs 5,000 crore, a six-month window to bring down its stake to 74%. But the process took close to two years and also saw Qualcomm drag the telecom department to court to get its permits. This time around, the government is determined to not let matters drag on like the Qualcomm incident and plans to have a fixed timeframe for foreign firms to rope in Indian partners, the DoT official said.
The government is hoping that interest among international players to participate will be high as this auction may well be the last of 2G spectrum.
– The return of a pro-market reformer to India's finance ministry has cheered investors and contributed to a market rally, but Palaniappan Chidambaram will need both political deftness and some luck to tackle the problems dragging the economy down.
Faced with impatient financial markets and the threat that India's credit rating could be cut to junk, Chidambaram has wasted no time since moving into his old ministry last week.He has ordered a review of retrospective tax rules that had panicked foreign investors and sidelined officials behind those rules. And, in his first public comments, the Harvard-educated former lawyer vowed to fill a gaping hole in the budget and ease the burden of high interest rates on consumers.In what is perhaps testament to his nimble media management, newspapers have somehow got wind of new early-morning starts and long hours for officials at the previously laid-back ministry.
During his last stint at finance, Chidambaram oversaw India's fastest growth surge in the past two decades that helped steer the economy through the worst of the global financial crisis. But this time, Chidambaram's task is more daunting.
Industrial output has fallen from year-earlier levels in three out of the last four months, and a summer drought has triggered a slew of cuts in growth forecasts, with economists predicting this year's economic expansion as low as 5.4 percent, the worst in a decade.He also inherits the political constraints that stymied his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee's efforts to push major reforms.
Bills that would bring crucial financial-sector reforms were removed from the agenda of the current parliament session because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed to win support for them from coalition allies and even some in his own party.
Efforts to allow foreign supermarkets to set up in India have also run into opposition because, although such a step would ease supply-side bottlenecks in an inflation-plagued economy, political parties fear it would cost jobs – and votes.
"Things are easier said than done in India," says Robert Prior-Wandesforde, an economist with Credit Suisse in Singapore, referring to New Delhi's repeated reneging on promises.
"Rather than promising and running the risk of not delivering. I would like to see him delivering, then talking."
FISCAL TEST
To help him deliver, Chidambaram may appoint former International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Raghuram Rajan as his chief economic adviser. Rajan, currently a professor at Chicago University's Booth School of Business, is credited for predicting the 2008 global financial crisis and is a vocal critic of New Delhi's populist policies.
The new minister's biggest test will be controlling the fiscal deficit, which overshot a target of 4.6 percent of GDP by 1.2 percentage points in 2011/12 due to slowing growth and increased spending on fuel and fertiliser subsidies.
India's sovereign credit rating is at risk because of the high fiscal deficit, whose funding from domestic savings is crowding out private investment and lowering growth prospects.
However, a drought due to disappointing monsoon rains will push the government to spend more on relief for farmers. Rural demand for cheap fuel to drive irrigation pumps and tractors has further delayed a promised increase in subsidised diesel prices, which the government concedes is vital to fixing the deficit.
Privately, finance ministry officials warn a lack of action on subsidies could push the deficit to 6 percent of GDP this fiscal year, above the government's target of 5.1 percent.
"Without addressing the issue of fuel subsidies, fiscal consolidation is not possible," a senior official at the Finance Ministry said, adding that the budgeted fuel subsidy bill of 436 billion rupees would nearly double if prices are not raised.
To ease the pressure, Chidambaram is looking at shoring up revenues through more efficient tax collections, the auction of cancelled second-generation mobile phone licences and sales of stakes in state-run firms. But that may not be enough.
Tax revenues are under pressure from the economic slowdown. Plans to raise 300 billion rupees through partial privatisations this year have gone nowhere so far and much will depend on how equity markets perform.
Chidambaram's best hope is a bonanza from an auction of mobile airwaves, which could fetch more than the budgeted 400 billion rupees.
"The government will have to rely on the disinvestment programme and the proceeds from the spectrum auction for overall fiscal management. If they are good, overall fiscal slippage can be contained within a reasonable limit," said Siddhartha Sanyal, an economist at Barclays Capital in Mumbai.
A failure to check the deficit would make it tougher for the minister to convince the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to lower interest rates further. The RBI has left rates steady for two straight reviews, asking the government to do its bit to revive the economy.
But Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at SMC Investments and Advisors Ltd., says further economic deceleration could force a re-think at the RBI.
"We are worrying about peripherals. We are forgetting the epicenter. Epicenter is growth, growth and growth," he said.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, as well as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who had sought to talk the economy up at his maiden press briefing earlier this week, dubbed the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) numbers for June as "disappointing" while India Inc. found enough powder in the data to clamour for immediate policy action to prevent a further slide.
Reiterating the need to promote critical sectors to boost growth, Mr. Chidambaram, in a statement, said: "The Quick Estimates of IIP for the month of June are disappointing.
"It is important to focus on the critical sectors, remove bottlenecks, and give a fillip to production…The production will revive if there are new investments in the demand creating industries."
Mr. Ahluwalia, however, found no reason to be very optimistic. "The industrial numbers have been disappointing for the first few months...I do not see robust industrial growth in the current fiscal," he said while hoping that the initiatives announced by the Finance Minister on August 6 should help in boosting the economy during the second half of the fiscal year.
In fact, the IIP data released here on Thursday reveal such a dismal industrial growth scenario that Mr. Chidambaram will have to quickly translate the initiatives announced by him into action to boost investor confidence and investments to retrieve the situation.
As per the data, industrial growth in June declined to minus 1.8 per cent from a robust expansion of 9.5 per cent in the same month a year ago.
Consequently, the cumulative IIP growth during the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal stands pegged at minus 0.1 per cent as compared to a far healthier 6.9 per cent growth achieved in the same period last fiscal. In particular, the slide in factory output has been mainly on account of the capital goods sector showing up with a negative growth of 27.9 per cent in June.
No surprise, therefore, that the manufacturing sector as a whole ended up in negative territory with a 3.2 per cent contraction in growth during June.
The poor June performance of the manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the IIP basket, also reflected in the April-June quarter with a decline by 0.7 per cent in growth as compared to a 7.7 per cent growth in the same quarter of 2011-12. Likewise, capital goods output also contracted by 19.6 per cent during the three-month period this fiscal as compared to a robust expansion of 17 per cent witnessed in the same period last fiscal.
POLICY ACTION NEEDED
Industry chambers, which had been alerting the government of the dismal situation over the past few months, expressed disappointment and demanded immediate policy actions to arrest further slippages.
Apex chamber FICCI called for a cut in interest rates to revive demand and boost investment. "There is a strong case for the RBI to cut interest rates further at least by 50 basis points immediately so as to encourage investments," FICCI President R. V. Kanoria said.
As for the other segments of the IIP, mining output in June grew by just 0.6 per cent against a contraction of 1.4 per cent in the same month a year ago while its production in the April-June quarter declined by 1.1 per cent compared to a growth of 0.6 per cent in 2011-12.
POWER GENERATION
Power generation saw a growth of 8.8 per cent during June, a tad higher than the 8 per cent increase logged in the same month a year ago. Electricity generation increased by 6.4 per cent in the first quarter of this fiscal as against 8.3 per cent in the same period in 2011-12.
Meanwhile, the industrial growth rate for May, 2012, has been revised upwards to 2.53 per cent, from the provisional estimates of 2.4 per cent.
Months after former chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu had to eat his words for using the phrase 'policy paralysis', comes the same from a more important source. And this time, there's no question of eating, no matter the change in phraseology.
In a background paper prepared for parliamentarians, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has painted a grim picture of the current economic situation and policy options. It states for a revival in investor confidence, there is a need to address concerns "over policy stasis" while putting in place "complementary actions that address macro-economic weaknesses."
The RBI's choice of the word 'stasis' instead of 'paralysis' is indeed inspired erudition. The dictionary meaning of the noun is "inactivity caused by opposing equal forces".
Quite apposite, compared with paralysis, which means a person or organisation's inability to act. Scripted after P Chidambaram's return to the finance ministry, the paper said the economy is bedeviled by several concerns.
The major monetary policy challenge has been inflation that continues to be high even as economic growth is slowing down and has already eroded domestic purchasing power. This has forced a slowdown in consumption demand.
"The growth risks in 2012-13 have been amplified due to decelerating global trade and domestic supply constraints, with inflation risks remaining high due to suppressed inflation, poor supply responses and deficit monsoon conditions," the RBI said.
In the context of inflation, particularly food inflation, the RBI is worried by the twin factors of a poor southwest monsoon and the increase (15% to 53%) in the minimum support price (MSP) for different agricultural produce. An increase in the MSP translates into a corresponding rise in their market prices.
The RBI expects global growth and trade volumes to be lower than projected earlier, and given India's greater integration with the global economy, this would have an adverse impact on growth in the industry and services sector.
The RBI said the fiscal and monetary space to stimulate the economy is limited because of the already high fiscal deficit and persistently high inflation. "The fiscal deficit target for 2012-13 is at a risk of being breached due to the likely overshooting of subsidies and shortfall in receipts," it said.
The finance minister will also be hamstrung by the political constraints in implementing the RBI's prescription that fiscal space can be created by curtailing subsidies and significantly boosting government's capital expenditures to provide an investment stimulus.
The RBI underscored that coupled with erosion in corporate profit margins there is a major decline in investment, particularly private corporate investment that is a major drag on the demand side.
Reserve Bank deputy governor HR Khan on Friday blamed the deficit in leadership and legal issues among factors inhibiting growth in the employment-friendly manufacturing sector.
"Everybody is talking of a leadership deficit... We have the right type of entrepreneurs, the right type of aptitude, but the leadership deficit is the number one factor," Khan said at a Federal Bank event here.
Listing seven factors hurting the all important manufacturing sector, Khan said more needs to be done to correct these flaws.
"We are in a very difficult phase of our economic history. We are passing through tough times," he said.
He said that another deficit stopping the progress of the nation is the lack of vibrance in the manufacturing sector, where the country is targeting creation of 100 million jobs by 2022, as part of the National Manufacturing Policy.
"We have a legal deficit in terms of contracts, in terms of policies, in terms of laws we have, including the law for liquidation... Suppose a company is not doing well, there should be a smooth path for liquidation," Khan said.
The deputy governor's comments come amidst talks of a leadership and "policy paralysis" within the industry and academia for the economy's ills.
Khan also blamed problems in fuel linkages for the power sector and other issues related to infrastructure as factors harming manufacturing growth. He said land acquisition, learning or skill-sets and labour are other difficulties which needed to be sorted out.
The last of the deficits in Khan's list was liquidity and he said that the RBI will do everything possible to maintain a steady flow of credit to the productive sector.
Duvvuri Subbarao got his two-year extension as RBI governor in August 2011. One year has passed and he appears to be in his final innings. Subbarao became governor in 2008 at the peak of the credit crisis. He came in when the response mechanism for fighting the downturn in the wake of the credit crisis was already put in place by his predecessor Yaga Venugopal Reddy. The response ensured that India's GDP did not fall below six per cent. In fact, even during the worst period of the crisis, India was able to pull through with little negative business sentiment. This time, Subbarao came roaring against inflation, pushed up interest rates and pulled back investment. Gross fixed capital formation is down to 28.6 per cent. When the first quarter GDP estimates are announced this month, investment is unlikely to have improved, going by credit offtake figures. If the purpose of interest rate hikes was to slow GDP growth and contain inflation, only the former objective has been met. The latter objective still remains far from being contained. Food inflation continues to hammer where it hurts, with food budgets as a component of household incomes at almost 60 per cent. It's worse in rural areas. It is easy to blame the euro zone crisis, but Europe can only take part responsibility. The Indian economy is largely driven by domestic consumption. Therefore, inflation responses cannot be on the same lines as in Europe or in the US. It is not that RBI does not have non-interest tools to contain inflation. Subbarao has those tools and the powers to deploy them. One mechanism would be to use selective credit controls or changing risk weightage of certain advances, especially trader credits. Selective credit control remains a tool to be used, especially in view of the large margins between farm gate, wholesalers and retailers. Ever wondered why it's cheaper to buy potatoes directly at wayside villages than the neighbourhood retailer? This is the impact of trader margin that accounts for almost 60 per cent of price loading. Neither RBI nor the government can deny that. Had selective controls been used, they would have struck directly at these margins. At the same time, credit would have been made available for investment, without compromising growth. Going by all the estimates till date, GDP growth is unlikely to hit six per cent. Worse, sinking growth will drive up bad loans as markets shrink and costs rise. There are now more distressed debtors in the country than in 2008, or even 2009. Subbarao can act at the cost of upsetting his bosses. But then, his real bosses are not in North Block. They are the 1.2 billion citizens who still believe that RBI is the watchdog against inflation and a doctor to rejuvenate the economy. Subbarao still has a year to go. He can meet those aspirations or leave with the economy in a deeper mess.
2G spectrum scam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe 2G spectrum scam involved government officials in India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would then use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be
176,645 crore (US$31.97 billion), as valued by theComptroller and Auditor General of India based on 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices in 2010.[1] However, the exact loss is disputed. In a chargesheet filed on 2 April 2011 by the investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the loss was pegged at 30,984.55 crore (US$5.61 billion)[2] Kapil Sibal, the Minister of communications & IT, claimed in 2011, during a press conference, that "zero loss" was caused by distributing 2G licenses on a dubious first-come-first-served basis instead of by transparent auction process.[3]The original plan for awarding licences was to follow a first-come-first-served policy to applicants. Mr Raja manipulated the rules so that the first-come-first-served policy would kick in - not on the basis of who applied first for a license, but who complied with the conditions.[4] On 10 January 2008, companies were given just a few hours to provide their Letters of Intent and cheques. Those allegedly tipped off by Mr Raja were waiting with their cheques and other documents. Some of their executives were sent to jail along with the Minister himself.[4]
In 2011, Time magazine listed the scam at number two on their "Top 10 Abuses of Power" list (just behind the Watergate scandal).[5][6][7]
[edit]Background
India is divided into 22 telecom zones, with a total of 281 zonal licenses in the market.[8] According to the telecom policy of India, when a licence is allotted to an operator, some start-up spectrum is bundled along with it.[9] The policy does not have a provision for auctioning the spectrum.[10] In 2008, 122 new second generation (2G) Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were given to telecom companies at the 2001 price and on a first-come-first-serve basis. As per the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), several rules were violated and bribes were paid to favour certain firms while awarding 2G spectrum licenses. The audit report ofComptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) says that several licenses were issued to firms with no prior experience in the telecom sector or were ineligible or had suppressed relevant facts.[11] In November 2007 Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh had written a letter to telecom minister A. Raja directing him to ensure allotment of 2G spectrum in a fair and transparent manner and to ensure license fee was properly revised. Raja wrote back to the Prime Minister rejecting many of his recommendations.[12] In the same monthMinistry of Finance wrote a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DOT) raising concerns over the procedure adopted by it[12] butDOT went ahead with its plan of giving 2G licenses. It preponed the cut-off date to 25 September, from 1 October 2007.[12] Later on the same day, DoT posted an announcement on its website saying those who apply between 3.30 and 4.30 pm on that very day would be issued licences in accordance with the said policy.[12] Companies like Unitech & Swan Telecom got licenses without any prior telecom experience.[10] Swan Telecom got the license even though it did not meet eligibility criteria.[10] Swan got license for1,537 crore (US$278.2 million) and then it sold 45% stake to UAE based company Etisalat for 4,200 crore (US$760.2 million).[10]Unitech Wireless, a subsidiary of the Unitech Group, got license for 1,661 crore (US$300.64 million) and later sold 60% stake for 6,200 crore (US$1.12 billion) to Norway based company Telenor.[10]Following is the list of companies who received 2G licenses during the tenure of A. Raja as Telecom Minister.[13][14] (The licenses were later quashed by Supreme Court)[15][16]
| Name of Company | Telecom regions for which license was granted | Number of license granted | Remarks |
| Adonis Projects Pvt. Ltd. | Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East) | 6 | Adonis Projects, Nahan Properties, Aska Projects, Volga Properties, Azare Properties & Hudson Properties were acquired by Unitech. Unitech Infrastructure and Unitech Builders & Estates were already subsidiaries of Unitech Group. So in 2008 Unitech had 22 2G licenses. Later in the same year Norway based companyTelenor bought majority stake in the telecom company from the Unitech Group. Now it offers services under Uninor brand holding 22 pan India licences. |
| Nahan Properties Pvt. Ltd. | Assam, Bihar, North East, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal | 6 | |
| Aska Projects Ltd. | Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka | 3 | |
| Volga Properties Pvt. Ltd. | Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra | 3 | |
| Azure Properties Ltd. | Kolkata | 1 | |
| Hudson Properties | Delhi | 1 | |
| Unitech Builders & Estates Pvt. Ltd. | Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) | 1 | |
| Unitech Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd. | Mumbai | 1 | |
| Loop Telecom Pvt. Ltd. | Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal, Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North East | 21 | |
| Datacom Solutions Pvt. Ltd. | Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, North East, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), West Bengal, Delhi, Mumbai | 21 | Operates under brand name Videocon Telecommunications Limited |
| Shyam Telelink Limited | Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, North East | 17 | Shyam Telelink Limited & Shyani Telelink Limited operate together with their combined 21 licenses. During late 2008 Russia based group Sistema bought majority stake in the telecom company and now they operate under brand name MTS India. |
| Shyani Telelink Limited | Mumbai, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh | 4 | |
| Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. | Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Delhi, Mumbai | 13 | In 2008, Swan Telecom merged itself with Allianz Infratech (P) Ltd. During late 2008 Abu Dhabi's Etisalat bought about 45 percent of the company and renamed it toEtisalat DB Telecom |
| Allianz Infratech (P) Ltd. | Bihar, Madhya Pradesh | 2 | |
| Idea Cellular | Assam, Punjab, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, North East, Kolkata, West Bengal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) | 9 | Idea Cellular bought Spice Communications Ltd. in 2008 for an amount of  2,700 crore (US$488.7 million).[17] So out of 122 spectrum licenses sold in 2008 Idea Cellular owns 13 licenses. However of the 13 licenses, only 7 of the licenses are in use by the company and the rest are overlapping licenses.[18] |
| Spice Communications Ltd. | Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra | 4 | |
| S Tel | Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, North East, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh | 6 | In January 2009, Bahrain Telecommunications signed a deal with S Tel to buy 49% shares in S Tel for $225 million. C Sivasankaran owns the remaining (51%) share.[19][20] In May 2009, Sahara Group bought 11.7% stake in S Tel[21] |
| Tata Teleservices | Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, North East | In late 2008 promoters of Tata Teleservices sold 26% equity stake to a Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo for about  13,070 crore (US$2.37 billion) or an enterprise value of  50,269 crore (US$9.1 billion).[22] |
[edit]Parties accused of involvement
The selling of the licenses brought attention to three groups of entities – politicians and bureaucrats who had the authority to sell licenses, corporations who were buying the licenses and media professionals who mediated between the politicians and the corporations.[edit]Politicians accused
Politicians named as accused in the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) amd Income Tax Department in the Special CBI Court, allegations levelled against them by CBI and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court.[23][24][25][26]- A. Raja :
- Political career - Political party DMK, 4 times Member of Parliament, present constituency Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, former Union Minister of State (Rural Development - 1999), former Union Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare - 2003), former Union Cabinet Minister (Environment & Forests - 2004), former Union Cabinet Minister (Communication and Information Technology - 2007 & 2009)[27][28][29][30]
- Allegation - In a joint investigation report prepared by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Income Tax Department the agencies allege that A.Raja could have received
3,000 crore (US$543 million) as bribe for bringing forward the cut-off date for applications for spectrum from the initial 1 October 2007 to 25 September 2007.[31][32] The deadline switch eliminated many applications, enabling Raja to favour a few with spectrum.[31][32] The agencies also alleged that he used bank accounts under his wife's name in Mauritius and Seychelles to channelise the kickbacks he received.[33] A chargesheet filed by CBI alleges that Raja conspired with the accused, subverted the first-come first-served (FCFS) policy and waywardly redefined it to ensure that Swan and Unitech got 2G licences.[34] He didn't auction the 2G spectrum or adopt some other market-determined methodology to determine its real valuation and instead benchmarked it to a rate discovered in 2001, when the telecom sector was at a nascent stage.[34]
- Charges - Criminal breach of trust by a public servant under section 409, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting illegal gratification.[23][35][36]
- Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011[37] On 9 May 2012 he applied for bail for the first time since his arrest.[38][39] and was granted bail on 15 May 2012[40][41][42] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- M. K. Kanimozhi :
- Political career - Daughter of 5 time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi. Political party DMK. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian Parliament).[44][45]
- Allegation - As per the chargesheet filed by CBI Kanimozhi has 20% stake in her family owned Kalaignar TV, her step-mother Dayalu Ammal owns 60% stake in the same channel.[46] CBI alleges that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations[46] and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route
200 crore (US$36.2 million) to Kalaignar TV.[47] According to CBI, Kanimozhi was in regular touch with A Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works.[47] CBI alleges that A Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet. She was also summoned by the Income Tax Department, Chennai for alleged tax evasion charges.[47]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.[23][35]
- Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 20 May 2011.[48][49] Granted bail on 28 November 2011 after spending 188 days in judicial custody.[50][51] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Pramod Mahajan- CBI decided to include the name of late Pramod Mahajan in a separate column of the charge sheet to be filed by it soon against three cellular companies and former officials in connection with alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during NDA regime causing a loss of Rs 508 crore to the exchequer.[52]
[edit]Bureaucrats accused
Bureaucrats named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI in the Special CBI Court, allegations levelled against them by CBI and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court.[23][24][25][26]- Siddharth Behura :
- Designation - Telecom Secretary when licenses were granted.[23][53]
- Allegation - According to the chargesheet filed by CBI, Behura conspired with A. Raja & several other accused. CBI alleges that when the application deadline time was declared as between 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, Behura allegedly shut counters to physically block other telecom companies.[10]
- Charges - Criminal breach of trust by a public servant under section 409, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting illegal gratification.[23][54]
- Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011[37] Granted bail on 9 May 2012[55][56] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43] Deposing before JPC on 10 July 2012, Behura blamed A Raja, the then telecom Minister, for the most of decisions related to 2G spectrum auctions.[57]
- RK Chandolia :
- Designation – Raja's private secretary when licenses were granted.[23][58]
- Allegation - As per the charsheet filed by CBI, like Behura, Chandolia too conspired with A. Raja and several other accused. The agency alleges that when the application deadline time was declared as between 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, Chandolia along with Behura allegedly shut counters to physically block other telecom companies.[10]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120 B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011.[37] Granted bail by the special CBI court 1 December 2011 but on 2 December 2011 High Court took suo motu notice of newspaper reports of the bail granted to Chandolia and stayed it.[59]Chandolia appealed against High Court order in Supreme Court and on 9 May 2012 Supreme Court of India upheld the bail granted to RK Chandolia.[60] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
[edit]Corporate executives accused
Corporates named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI in the Special Court and charges framed against them by the Special court.[23][24][25][26]- Sanjay Chandra
- Designation - Former MD, Unitech Wireless[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on April 20, 2011,[61][62] granted bail on 24 November 2011.[63] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Gautam Doshi :
- Designation - Group MD, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011,[61] granted bail on 24 November 2011.[63] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Hari Nair :
- Designation - Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471.Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011,[61] granted bail on 24 November 2011.[63] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Surendra Pipara :
- Designation - Senior vice- President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011,[61] granted bail on 24 November 2011.[63] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Vinod Goenka :
- Designation - Promoter and Managing Director, DB Realty & Swan Telecom[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120 B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under thePrevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011,[61] granted bail on 24 November 2011.[63] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Shahid Balwa :
- Designation – Promoter, DB Realty & Swan Telecom[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant Criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under thePrevention of Corruption Act.[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 8 February 2011,[64] granted bail on 29 November 2011.[65] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Asif Balwa (younger brother of Shahid Balwa) :
- Designation – Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked underPrevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011,[66] granted bail on 28 November 2011.[67] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Rajiv Agarwal :
- Designation - Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked underPrevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011,[66] granted bail on 28 November 2011.[67] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Sharath Kumar
- Designation – Managing Director, Kalaignar TV[23]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked underPrevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 May 2011,[68] granted bail on 28 November 2011.[69] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Ravi Ruia :
- Designation - Vice Chairman, Essar Group[70][71]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.[70][71]
- Status - Not taken into custody as yet.[72] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Anshuman Ruia :
- Designation - Diector, Essar Group[70][71]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.[70][71]
- Status - Not taken into custody as yet.[72] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Vikas Saraf :
- Designation - Director for strategy and planning, Essar Group[70][71]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.[70][71]
- Status - Not taken into custody as yet.[72] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- IP Khaitan :
- Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom[70][71]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.[70][71]
- Status - Not taken into custody as yet.[72] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Kiran Khaitan :
- Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom[70][71]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.[70][73]
- Status - Not taken into custody as yet.[72] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
[edit]Film and entertainment persons accused
- Karim Morani :
- Designation - (Promoter and Director, Cineyug Films)[23]
- Allegation - In the chargesheet filed by Income Tax Department the agency alleged that Karim Morani owned Cineyug Films was a part of the circuitous route used by another accuse Shahid Balwa to transfer illegal gratification[74] of 200 crore (US$36.2 million) to Kalaignar TV of which Kanimozhi, was a director.[74] According to the chargesheet, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, promoters of DB Realty transferred 209.25 crore (US$37.87 million) to Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables of which Shahid Balwa's younger brother Asif Balwa was a director.[74][75] Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables then transferred a sum of 200 crore (US$36.2 million) to Cineyug Films whose promoter Karim Morani transferred it to Kalaignar TV[74]
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under thePrevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 30 May 2011,[76] granted bail on 28 November 2011.[69] As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
[edit]Corporations accused
Companies named in the chargesheet filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and charges framed against them.[23][24][25][26]- Unitech Wireless :
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.[23]
- Status - As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Reliance Telecom :
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Swan Telecom :
- Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act[23]
- Status - As of May 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.[43]
- Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd
- Loop Mobile India Ltd
- Essar Tele Holding
- Essar (Parent group of Essar Tele Holding)
[edit]Media persons' dubious role
Main article : Radia tapes controversyMedia sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that two senior journalists Barkha Dutt (Group Editor of NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi(Editorial Director of Hindustan Times) knew that corporate lobbyist Nira Radia was influencing the decisions of appointment of telecom minister. Radia wanted A Raja to be made telecom minister.[80] The two magazines made public the telephone conversations betweenNira Radia, Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi.[81][82] Radia's phones were being tapped by Income Tax department. Critics allege that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew about nexus between government and the media industry but still they supported this corrupt activity and suppressed news reporting the discovery of the corrupt practice.[80] However these people were not named as accused in the chargesheet filed by Income Tax Department, but were investigated by the CBI.[citation needed]
[edit]Chronology of events and investigation
The Centre for Public Interest Litigation filed the first petition against the Union of India for irregularities in awarding 2G spectrum licenses. The petition alleged that the government had lost $15.53 billion by issuing spectrum in 2008 based on 2001 prices, and by not following a competitive bidding process. This led to further petitions and the launch of a probe in 2010.[83][edit]2007
- May 2007: A Raja takes over as Telecom Minister.[84]
- August 2007: Process of allotment of 2G spectrum for telecom along with Universal Access Service (UAS) Licences initiated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
- 25 September 2007: Telecom Ministry issues press note fixing deadline for application as 1 October 2007.
- 1 October 2007: DoT receives 575 applications for UAS licences of 46 companies.[85]
- 2 November 2007: The Prime Minister writes to Raja directing him to ensure allotment of 2G spectrum in a fair and transparent manner and to ensure that licence fee was properly revised. Raja writes back to the Prime Minister rejecting many of his recommendations.
- 22 November 2007: Finance Ministry writes to DoT raising concerns over the procedure adopted by it. Demand for review rejected.
[edit]2008
- 10 January 2008: DoT decides to issue licences on first-come-first-serve basis, preponing the cut-off date to 25 September, from 1 October 2007. Later on the same day, DoT posted an announcement on its website saying those who apply between 3.30 pm and 4.30 pm would be issued licences in accordance with the said policy.[86][87]
- 2008: Swan Telecom, Unitech and Tata Teleservices sell off a part of their stakes at much higher rates to Etisalat, Telenor and DoCoMo, respectively.[88][89][90]
[edit]2009
- 4 May 2009: An NGO Telecom Watchdog files complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on the illegalities in the spectrum allocation to Loop Telecom.
- 19 May 2009: Another complaint was filed to the CVC by Arun Agarwal, highlighting grant of spectrum to Swan Telecom at throwaway prices.
- 2009: CVC directs CBI to investigate the irregularities in allocation of 2G spectrum.
- 1 July 2009: Delhi HC holds advancing of cut-off date as illegal on a petition of telecom company S-Tel.[91]
- 21 October 2009: CBI registers a case and files an FIR against "unknown officers of DoT and unknown private persons/companies under various provisions of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.
- 22 October 2009: Income Tax Department raids DoT offices.[92][93][94]
- 16 November 2009: CBI seeks details of tapped conversation of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia to find out involvement of middlemen in the grant of spectrum to telecom companies. It has sought help from the Directorate General of Income Tax Investigationregarding information on Ms. Nira Radia of M/s Noesis Consultancy and records pertaining to middlemen regarding award of 2G spectrum licences
[edit]2010
- 13 March 2010: SC upholds Delhi HC verdict on cut off date advancement as illegal[95][96]
- 31 March 2010: CAG says that there was large scale irregularities in the spectrum allocation.
- 2 April 2010: CBI DIG (Investigations) Vineet Agarwal IRS and Director General of Income Tax (Investigations) Milap Jain IRS, who were investigating the case, transferred. Milap Jain was transferred as Director General of International Taxation.[97]
- 6 May 2010: Telephonic conversation between Raja and Niira Radia taped by the Income Tax Department made public by the media.[98]
- May, 2010: NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation moves the Delhi High Court seeking investigation into the scam by SIT.
- 25 May 2010: Delhi HC dismisses the petition.
- August 2010: Appeal filed in the Supreme Court against the High Court's order.
- 18 August 2010: HC refuses to direct the Prime Minister to decide on a complaint by Janata Party chief Swamy seeking sanction to prosecute Raja for his involvement in 2G scam.
- 13 September 2010: SC asks government, Raja to reply within 10 days to three petitions filed by CPIL and others alleging there was a
70,000 crore (US$12.67 billion) scam in the grant of telecom licences in 2008.
- 24 September 2010: Swamy moves SC seeking direction to the PM to sanction prosecution of Raja.
- 27 September 2010: Income Tax Department informs SC of probe against firms suspected to have violated FEMA. Says can't deny or confirm now Raja's involvement in the scam.
- 8 October 2010: SC asks government to respond to CAG report about the scam.[99]
- 21 October 2010: Draft reports of CAG placed before the Supreme Court.
- 29 October 2010: SC pulls up CBI for its tardy progress in the investigations into the scam.[100][101]
- 10 November 2010: CAG submits report on 2G spectrum to government stating loss of
176,000 crore (US$31.86 billion) to exchequer.
- 11 November 2010: DoT files affidavit in SC saying CAG did not have the authority to question the policy decision as per which licence were issued to new players in 2008.
- 14 November 2010: A Raja resigns as Telecom Minister[102][103]
- 15 November 2010: Kapil Sibal given additional charge of Telecom Ministry.[104][105]
- 20 November 2010: Affidavit on behalf of PM filed in Supreme Court. Rejects charge of inaction on Swamy's complaint.[106][107][108]
- 22 November 2010: CBI and Income Tax tells SC it will file charge sheet in the case within three months.
- 22 November 2010: CBI tells SC role of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia would be questioned by it.
- 24 November 2010: SC reserves verdict on Swamy's plea seeking direction to PM for grant of sanction to prosecute Raja.
- 25 November 2010: SC ticks off CBI for not questioning Raja.
- 29 November 2010: CBI files status report on 2G spectrum scam probe.
- 30 November 2010: SC questions CVC P J Thomas's moral right to supervise CBI's probe into 2G spectrum scam as he himself was Telecom Secretary at that point of time.[109]
- 1 December 2010: SC directs original tapes containing conversation between corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others be handed over to it.
- 1 December 2010: Raja questions CAG findings in the SC.
- 2 December 2010: Government places recorded tapes in the SC from the Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation.
- 2 December 2010: SC comes down heavily on Raja for bypassing and overruling PM's advice to defer allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days.
- 8 December 2010: SC favours including in the probe period since 2001 when first-come-first-serve was the norm for spectrum allocation.
- 8 December 2010: SC asks Centre to consider setting up of a special court to try 2G spectrum scam case.
- 8 December 2010: Income Tax Department submits report. Says money trail covers 10 countries, including Mauritius.
- 14 December 2010: Another PIL in SC seeking cancellation of new telecom licences and 2G spectrum allocated during Raja's tenure.
- 15 December 2010: Swamy files petition in a Delhi court seeking his inclusion as a public prosecutor in 2G spectrum case.
- 15 December 2010: Swamy mentions in complaint that Raja favoured "ineligible" private companies Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Unitech Wireless Ltd in allocating the spectrum.
- 16 December 2010: SC decides to monitor the CBI inquiry[110][111][112]
[edit]2011
- 4 January 2011: Swamy moves SC seeking cancellation of 2G spectrum licenses.
- 10 January 2011: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on the plea seeking cancellation of 2G licenses. Also issues notices to 11 companies which allegedly did not fulfill the roll-out obligations or were ineligible.
- 30 January 2011: Government's decision to regularise licenses of the companies which failed to meet the deadline for roll-out obligation challenged in the Supreme Court.
- 2 February 2011: Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura and Raja's former Personal Secretary R K Chandolia arrested and next day they were remanded in CBI custody.
- 8 February 2011: Raja remanded to two more days of CBI custody. Behura and Chandolia sent to judicial custody.
- 8 February 2011: Shahid Usman Balwa, promoter of Swan Telecom, arrested by CBI.
- 10 February 2011: SC asks CBI to bring under its scanner corporate houses which were beneficiaries of the 2G spectrum. Raja remanded to CBI custody for four more days by a special CBI court along with Balwa.
- 14 February 2011: Raja's CBI custody extended for three more days. Balwa's custody extended for four days.
- 17 February 2011: Raja sent to Tihar Jail under judicial custody.
- 18 February 2011: Income Tax Department questions Kani Mozhi in Chennai Headquarters.
- 24 February 2011: CBI tells a Delhi court that Balwa facilitated transaction to Kalaignar TV.
- 28 February 2011: Raja seeks judicial proceedings through video conferencing stating that he faces threat to life from fellow prisoners.
- 1 March 2011: CBI tells SC that 63 persons are under scanner. Raja allowed by CBI court to appear before it via video-conferencing.
- 14 March 2011: The Delhi High Court sets up special court to deal exclusively with 2G cases. Balwa also allowed to appear via video-conferencing.
- 17 March 2011: SC reserves order on cancellation of 2G licenses. It rejected companies' claim saying that Principle of Estoppelcan't be applied to protect illegality.[113][114]
- 29 March 2011: SC permits CBI to file charge sheet on 2 April instead of 31 March. Two more persons — Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal — arrested.
- 2 April 2011: CBI files its first charge sheet in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.[115][116][117]
- 25 April 2011: CBI files second charge sheet and court issues summons to Kanimozhi, Sharad Kumar and Karim Morani taking cognizance of the charge sheet.[118][119][120]
- 6 May 2011: Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar appear before court and file bail pleas while Morani sought exemption from appearance on medical ground.[121][122][123]
- 6 May 2011: SC issues contempt notice to Sahara India managing director Subroto Roy and two others for alleged interference in the ongoing ED investigation into the 2G spectrum case.[124][125]
- 7 May 2011: Special CBI Court reserves order on Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar's bail applications.
- 14 May 2011: Special CBI Court defers order on their bail pleas for 20 May.
- 20 May 2011: Special CBI Court rejects bail pleas of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar and orders their forthwith arrest saying that there was a possibility of witnesses being influenced considering the magnitude of the crime.[126][127]
- 8 June 2011: Delhi HC rejects bail pleas of Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar citing that there are certain prima facie evidences against the accused and they may be in a position to influence the 2G probe[128][129]
- 20 June 2011: SC rejects Kanimozhi's bail plea[130][131][132]
- 25 July 2011: Arguments on Charge begins. Raja seeks to make Prime Minister and former finance minister P Chidambaram as witness.
- 26 August 2011: Special CBI court allows Subramanian Swamy to argue his own case (mainly to address the possible loop holes in CBI investigation of the case)[133][134]
- 30 August 2011: Income Tax Department orders freezing of accounts, attachment of properties worth
223 crore (US$40.36 million)of five companies mainly related to DB Realty under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)[135][136]
- 1 September 2011: ED files status report in Supreme Court, says there have been FEMA violation of
10,000 crore[137]
- 15 September 2011: Swamy pleads before special CBI court that P Chidambaram should be made co-accused[138]
- 22 September 2011: CBI defends Chidambaram in SC, blames DoT for all wrongs.
- 26 September 2011: CBI moves plea for framing fresh charge for criminal breach of trust against Raja, Chandolia and Behura.[139][140]
- 29 September 2011: CBI says role of Anil Ambani being probed, gives a virtual clean chit to Tata and Videocon group.[141][142]
- 9 October 2011: CBI files FIR against Maran and his brother in Aircel-Maxis deal.[143][144][145]
- 10 October 2011: SC reserves order against Subramanian Swamy's plea for a probe into Home Minister Chidambaram's role in the 2G scam.[146][147] On the same day CBI books former telecom minister and DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran and his brother and media baron Kalanithi Maran[148]
- 22 October 2011: Special CBI Court finds prima facie evidence to put on trial all 17 accused including Raja on various counts like criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, cheating and forgery.[149][150]
- 3 November 2011: Special CBI court dismisses bail pleas of all the 8 applicants (including Kanimozhi)[151]
- 8 November 2011: Special CBI court orders CBI to give copy of file on sale of equity by telecom companies (for investigating P Chidambaram's involvement) to Swamy[152][153]
- 9 November 2011: Delhi HC refuses to grant interim bail to Karim Morani on health grounds wondering Why everybody falls sick once he is in custody? HC issues notice to the CBI on its reply on the bail pleas of the five accused by 1 December.[154][155]
- 11 November 2011: Trial of the 17 accused begins in Patiala House special CBI court.[156][157]
- 14 November 2011: UPA govt moves SC seeking to restrain Dr Subramanian Swamy from making public allegations against the UPA leadership (especially Home Minister P Chidambaram and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi) in the 2G scam case[158][159]
- 22 November 2011: The Special CBI court shifts the trial to the Tihar Jail complex following a Delhi high court order[160][161]
- 23 November 2011: SC grants bail to 5 corporate executives – Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Wireless, Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom as well as Reliance Group's Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nayar.[162]
- 28 November 2011: HC grants bail to DMK MP Kanimozhi and 4 others namely Karim Morani, Sharad Kumar and Asif Balwa and Rajeev Agarwal. The court upheld the principle of parity under Section 144 of the Constitution of India that upholds an order passed by the SC.[163][164]
- 29 November 2011: The special CBI court grants bail to Shahid Balwa citing principle of parity that SC and HC have already granted bail to 10 other accused[165][166]
- 1 December 2011: The special CBI court grants bail to A. Raja's ex-private secretary R. K. Chandolia and puts additional condition to not visit the DoT without prior permission of the court[167][168]
- 2 December 2011: Taking a suo motu cognizance, HC stays bail given by trial court to R K Chandolia[169]
- 7 December 2011: SC stays HC's suo motu order against Chandolia's bail[170][171]
- 8 December 2011: The special CBI court accepts Swamy's plea against Chidambaram to become a witness in his own complaint and examine 2 witnesses, including senior CBI official and senior Finance Ministry official[172][173]
- 12 December 2011: CBI files third charge sheet naming Essar Group promoters Ravi Ruia, his son Anshuman Ruia and its director (Strategy and Planning) Vikas Saraf, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan (sister of Ravi Ruia) and her husband I P Khaitan. It also charge sheets Loop Mobile India Ltd, its subsidiary Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd and Essar Tele Holding.[174][175]
- 16 December 2011: HC rejects bail plea of Siddharth Behura saying "he was the 'perpetrator' of the illegal designs of Raja and would not claim benefit of parity with 10 others released on bail"[176]
[edit]2012
- 2 February: The Supreme court of India cancelled all 122 licenses allotted by A Raja and imposed Rs 5 crore(US$ 1,018,122) fine on Unitech, Swan and Tata Teleservices. It also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, S-Tel, Allianz Infratech and Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd. It also asked trial court to decide whether Home Minister P Chidambaram should be made co-accused in 2G scam.[177][178]
- 4 February: The special court of justice O.P Saini dismissed the plea of Subramanian Swamy to make then Finance Minister P.Chidambram as co-accused in the 2G scam.[179]
- 8 February: EDand I-T registers money laundering case against DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran[180] and his brother Kalanithi Maranfor allegedly receiving illegal gratification of about
550 crore in the Aircel-Maxis deal.[181]
- 9 February: Essar Group and Loop Telecom approach Supreme Court against its trial before Special CBI Court in 2G case.[182][183]
- 15 February: Supreme Court refused to grant interim stay on the summonses issued against Essar Group, Loop Telecom and their officials by a special CBI court to appear before it on 22 February for their alleged involvement in a 2G spectrum scam.[184]
- 22 February: CBI lodges strong protest with CVC on the "dirty tricks" of certain Income Tax officials to intimidate crucial witnesses in the 2G case allegedly at the behest of DMK's Minister of State (Finance) SS Palanimanickam. Dr. Swamy said he would approach Supreme Court on this matter.[185]
- 23 February: Subramanian Swamy files petition in Supreme Court challenging trial court's order which had dismissed Swamy's plea to make Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram as a co-accused in the 2G scam.[186]
- 2 March: Govt of India files review petition in Supreme Court seeking partial review of the court's 2 February 2012 order which had quashed 122 licenses.[187] The Govt questioned Supreme Court's authority over ruling against the first-come first-served policy but stayed away from challenging the cancellation of 122 licences issued during the tenure of A Raja as Telecom Minister.[188] On the same day former telecom minister A Raja, Sistema, majority shareholder in MTS India, Uninor and other telecom companies too filed a review petition in Supreme Court.[189]
- 4 April: Other than Government of India's partial review petition Supreme Court dismissed all 10 review petitions.[190] The telecom companies whose review petition was dismissed include Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, S Tel Ltd, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, Tata Teleservices Ltd, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd.[190]
- 12 April: Government filed presidential reference in Supreme Court seeking the court's opinion on various issues arising from its 2 February 2012 judgement[191]
- 9 May: Supreme Court granted bail to Siddharth Behura[192] and upheld RK Chandolia's bail.[193] On the same day A Raja also applied for bail.[194]
- 15 May: Bail granted to A Raja with a condition to get court's permission for visiting Tamil Nadu[40][41] He walked out of Tihar jail after 15 months.[195]
- 6 June: Special CBI Court granted permission for Raja to visit Tamil Nadu[196]
- 3 July: Briefing the Joint parliamentary committee probing the scam, ED claimed that it has enough evidence to convict DMK chiefKarunanidhi's wife and daughter Kanimozhi.[197]
- 31 July: Former DoT senior official AK Srivastava confirmed CBI's allegation in his testimony saying A Raja as telecom minister was the final authority for taking decisions on policy matters. He in his statement to CBI earlier had mentioned that Raja had recorded the cut—off date of October 1, 2007 for receiving applications for grant of the 2G spectrum licences on a DoT file.[198]
- 1 August: The Supreme Court, hearing the Presidential Reference on the '2G judgment,' said implementation of first served (FCFS) policy for allotment of spectrum was flawed. The Chief Justice of India said, "The moment you change the criterion and distort the policy, it ceases to be FCFS policy. If you insist on making payment at the last minute after changing the cut-off date, then it is not FCFS, it is an out-of-turn policy."[199]
- 3 August: According to the directions of the Supreme Court, Govt of India revised the spectrum price to
14,000 crore (US$2.53 billion)[200] which demolished the "zero loss theory" and further established
176,000 crore (US$31.86 billion) revenue loss calculated by CAG.[201]
- 9 August: The Government again sought extension of time from the Supreme Court till November 12 for commencing auction of 2G spectrum licences. The court, while quashing 123 licences in February 2012, had given four months for their fresh auction which was extended till August 31. [202]
[edit]Licenses quashed
On 2 February 2012 Supreme Court of India delivered judgement on petitions filed by Subramanian Swamy and Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) which had challenged allotment of 2G licenses granted in 2008.[203] The Supreme Court quashed all 122 spectrum licences granted during the tenure of former communications minister A Raja.[203] and described the allocation of 2G spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary".[204] The bench of Justice GS Singhvi & Justice AK Ganguly imposed fine of 5 crore (US$0.91 million) on Unitech Wireless, Swan telecom and Tata Teleservices and 50 lakh (US$90,500) fine on Loop Telecom,S Tel, Allianz Infratech and Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd.[205] The Supreme Court's ruling said the current licences will remain in place for four months, in which time the government should decide fresh norms for issuing licences.[206]The Supreme Court said in its order that then telecom minister A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and listed seven steps he took to ensure this happened.[205][207] According to the Supreme Court of India the seven steps were :
- After taking over as telecom minister, Raja directed that all applications received for UAS licences should be kept pending till receipt of the Trai's recommendations.[205][207]
- The recommendations made by Trai on 28 August 2007, were not placed before the full Telecom Commission which would have included the finance secretary. The notice of the meeting of the Telecom Commission was not given to any of the non-permanent members though Trai's recommendations for allocation of 2G spectrum had serious financial implications and it was therefore necessary for DoT to take the finance ministry's opinion under the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961.[205][207]
- The DoT officers who attended the Telecom Commission meeting held on 10 October 2007, had no choice but to approve Trai's recommendations, since they would otherwise have "incurred" Raja's "wrath".[205][207]
- Since Cabinet had approved recommendations made by the Group of Ministers, the DoT had to discuss the issue of spectrum pricing with the finance ministry. But, since Raja knew that the finance secretary had objected to the allocation of 2G spectrum at rates fixed in 2001, he did not consult the finance minister or other officials.[205][207]
- Raja brushed aside the law minister's suggestion that the matter should be placed before the empowered group of ministers. Also, within hours of the receipt of the suggestion made by the PM in his letter dated 2 November 2007, that keeping in view the inadequacy of spectrum, transparency and fairness should be maintained in allocation of the spectrum, Raja rejected it saying that it would be unfair, discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious to auction spectrum to new applicants because it would not give them a level-playing field. He also introduced a cut-off date of 25 September 2007, for considering applications though only the previous day a DoT press release had said 1 October 2007, would be the last date. This arbitrary action of Raja "though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate firms who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services and who had made applications only on 24 September 2007, i.e. one day before the cut-off date fixed by the C&IT minister on his own".[205][207]
- The cut-off date of 25 September 2007, decided by Raja on 2 November 2007, was not made public till 10 January 2008, and the first-come-first-served principle followed since 2003 was changed by him at the last moment through a press release dated 10 January 2008. "This enabled some of the applicants, who had access either to the minister or DoT officers, get bank drafts prepared towards performance guarantee of about Rs 1,600 crore".[205][207]
- "The manner in which the exercise for grant of LoIs to the applicants was conducted on 10 January 2008 leaves no room for doubt that everything was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance change in the implementation of the first-come-first-served policy." As a result, some firms which had submitted applications in 2004 or 2006 were pushed down in the priority and those who had applied between August and September 2007 succeeded.[205][207]
[edit]Telecom companies affected by cancellation of licenses
The table below shows list of companies whose license were cancelled[208][209]| Name of company | Parent group | Number of licenses cancelled |
Joint venture between Unitech Group of India and Telenor of Norway Unitech Group | 22 | |
Joint venture between Shyam group of Indian and Sistema of Russia | 21 | |
Loop Mobile formerly BPL Mobile | Owned by Khaitan Holding Group | 21 |
Owned by Videocon group of India | 21 | |
Etisalat-DB | Joint venture between Swan Telecom of India and Etisalat of UAE | 15 |
Aditya Birla Groupof India (49.05%), Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia (15%) & Providence Equity(10.6%)of USA | 13 | |
Joint venture between C Sivasankaran of India and Batelco of Bahrain. After the Supreme Court's decision Batelco sold its 42.7% stake to C Sivasankaran company Sky City Foundation Ltd. for $175 million[210] | 6 | |
Owned by Tata Group of India | 3 |
[edit]Aftereffects of Supreme Court's verdict
- Batelco quits India - Batelco, the Bahrain telecommunications company holding 42.7% stake in S Tel declared that it has agreed to sell its entire holding to Indian partner Sky City Foundation Ltd for 65.8 million Bahraini dinar ($174.5 million).[210][211][212]
- Telenor terminates agreement and sues Unitech - On 21 February 2012 Telenor, majority stakeholder in Uninor, terminated its agreement with its Indian partner Unitech and sued it seeking "indemnity and compensation".[213][214][215]
- Etisalat sues Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka - On 23 February 2012 Etisalat of the Etasalat-DB Telecom sued Shahid Balwaand Vinod Goenka, promoters of its Indian partner DB Realty for fraud and misrepresentation.[216][217][218]
[edit]Aircel-Maxis deal controversy
Dr Subramanian Swamy alleged that in 2006, a company controlled by then Minister of Finance P Chidambaram's son Karti got five per cent stake in Sivasankaran's Aircel to get part of ₹4000 crore that the Maxis Communications paid for 74 per cent stake in Aircel. He alleged that Mr Chidambaram withheld the FIPB clearance to the deal till his son got the five per cent shares in Siva's company.[219]Subsequently the issue was raised on multiple times in Parliament of India by the opposition which demanded resignation of Mr P Chidambaram.[220] He and the government denied all the allegations.[221] However, according to The Pioneer and India Today reports, documents show that approval to the FDI proposal was indeed delayed about 7 months by P Chidambaram.[219][222][223][edit]Response to scam
- Opposition demands Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) - As soon as the Indian media started citing Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report which pegged the loss at 1.76 lakh crore, the Indian opposition parties unanimously demanded formation of Joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate 2G scam.[224][225] However the Indian government rejected the demand of opposition.[225] Later when the winter session of parliament began on 9 November 2010, opposition again pressed for(JPC) but once again the demand was rejected.[225] The opposition's demand for (JPC) gained further momentum when Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report was tabled in Parliament on 16 November 2010.[226] The opposition blocked parliament proceedings and again pressed for JPC.[227] With Govt again rejecting the demand there was logjam in parliament.[228] Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar tried to break the logjam but her efforts didn't bear any fruit.[229] Finally the winter session of parliament concluded on 13 December 2010 . The plan was to introduce 22 new bills, take up 23 pending bills for consideration and passing and withdraw three bills but that didn't happen because the parliament was allowed to function for only 9 hours.[230] In February 2011, after resisting the Opposition demand for over three months, the government finally agreed to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G spectrum allocation issue. The government announced it formally on 22 February 2011.[231] On 24 July 2012, JPC took CBI to task for the leniency shown to PM, AG, Dayanidhi Maran and Chidambaram and reluctance to investigate their role in 2G Spectrum scam.[232] Recently after questioning former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and the head of Maxis Communications, CBI alleged that Maran brothers have accrued illegal gratification of Rs 550 crore by purchase of Sun Direct TV share at highly "inflated prices".[233]
- Jayalalitha accuses M. Karunanidhi - In early November 2010 Jayalalithaa accused the state chief minister M Karunanidhi of protecting A. Raja from corruption charges and called for A. Raja's resignation.[234] By mid November A. Raja resigned.[235]
- CAG issues show-cause notices - In mid November the comptroller Vinod Rai issued show-cause notices to Unitech, S Tel, Loop Mobile, Datacom (Videocon), and Etisalat to respond to his assertion that all of the 85 licenses granted to these companies did not have the up-front capital required at the time of the application and were in other ways illegal.[236] Some media sources have speculated that these companies will receive large fines but not have their licenses revoked, as they are currently providing some consumer service.[236]
- Internal appraisal after Prime Minister's criticism - In June 2011, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticised the CAG for commenting on policy issues. He also warned CAG "to limit the office to the role defined in the constitution."[237] After Prime Minister's criticism, the CAG conducted a "rigorous internal appraisal" and stood by its findings, also citing additional crucial events to corroborate them. The CAG reiterated that there was "an undeniable loss to the exchequer", the calculation of which was based upon 3 estimates - 3G auctions, Swan and Unitech transactions. It also cited the Supreme Court judgement on February 2, 2012 that the actions of Mr. Raja and officers of the Department of Telecom were "wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the public interest, apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality. The material produced for the quote showed that the Minister for C&IT wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer." The CAG also said that its estimation of loss of 1.76-lakh crore was justified as the TRAI's collation of reserve price for 2G spectrum as of May, 2012 was approximately same as the calculation in CAG report of November 2010 on 2G scam. It also highlights that the TRAI had recommended a reserve price of 2G spectrum of Rs. 18,000 crore for a pan-India licence for 5 MHz spectrum which was higher than the 3G value of Rs. 16,750 crore for 5 MHz used by the CAG for arriving at a [loss] figure of 1,76,000 crore. It concluded by saying that it was only examining the "implementation of policy" and that the policy making was government's prerogative.[238]
[edit]See also
- List of scandals in India
- List of politicians in India charged with corruption
- Corruption in India
- The Lokpal Bill, 2011
- 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement
- Jan Lokpal Bill
[edit]External links
- Transcripts : The Radia Tapes contains all the leaked audio transcripts between corporate lobbyist Nira Radia and other high-profile people.
- 2G Scam: In the dock (in pictures:HT)
- Case Study on the Supreme Court Ruling on the 2G Spectrum Scam
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