The government had last month annulled the controversial deal between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia for lease of space segment in S-band.
Under the deal, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment to Devas for its digital multimedia services. This was to be done by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in satellites GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A that are proposed to be launched by ISRO. Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of $300 million over 12 years. There were complaints about the manner in which the deal was entered into and the way in which it was being operationalised. It was found that the Department of Space got the approvals for building the satellites without making any reference to the fact that they were to be utilised primarily for Devas’ benefit. Antrix-Devas deal was also not discussed in the Union Cabinet
The Prime Minister had ordered a review of the deal by a committee comprising B K Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission and aerospace scientist Roddam Narsimha.
The committee submitted its report to the Prime Minister on March 12. Dr. Manmohan Singh had asked Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekar to examine the report and make recommendations on the follow-up action.
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