Ex-chief of ISRO Madhavan Nair named in Antrix charge sheet
The
Central Bureau of Investigation filed a charge sheet against former ISRO
Chairman G. Madhavan Nair and other senior officials in the Antrix-Devas deal
case for allegedly facilitating a wrongful gain of Rs.578 crore to Devas
Multimedia Private Limited.
Background:
The
charge sheet has been filed in a Delhi court days after the commercial arm of
ISRO, Antrix Corporation lost its case in the international tribunal of arbitration
in The Hague over cancellation of the contract.
Allegation:
It is alleged that the government officials abused their
position to favour Devas by giving them rights for delivery of videos,
multimedia content and information services to mobile phones using S-Band
through GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites and terrestrial systems in India. They,
thus, caused a wrongful gain of Rs.578 crore to the private firm and its owners.
About Devas:
- Under this, along with the transponders, Devas Multimedia gets access to about 70 Mhz of spectrum in the 2500 Mhz band. Devas Multimedia is planning to launch broadband services through a combination of satellite and terrestrial networks.
- It wants to offer satellite broadband services across India on various platforms, including mobile.
- It claims to have developed its own portable device, which acts like a WiFi router.
- The company is already in talks with the Indian Railways for a host of services such as real-time location spotting and collision avoidance.
- It claims to have done successful trials in 2009 and 2010.
On January 28, 2005, Devas Multimedia reached an agreement with
Antrix, ISRO’s commercial arm, to lease S-band transponder capacity on the
yet-to-be launched GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A.
The Bangalore-based start-up, founded in 2004, is headed by Dr.
M.G. Chandrasekhar, former Scientific Secretary at ISRO.
