New Delhi: Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation over the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on coal blocks allocation, CNN-IBN has accessed copies of letters written by BJP governments of several states opposing auction of coal blocks. The BJP has accused Manmohan Singh of being responsible for doling out coal blocks and not auctioning them but the news could provide the...
02:33 PM, Aug 21, 2012
New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court for another extension on the time limit for re-auctioning 2G spectrum. The matter is expected to come up for hearing on Friday. The apex court had given the Centre four months' time to conduct a fresh auction while quashing 122 telecom licenses on February 2 in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. The time limit was then extended till August...
11:47 AM, Aug 21, 2012
Bangalore: Asserting that the proposed auction of airwaves will be successful, telecom regulator TRAI on Monday said its recommendation of Rs 18,000 for pan-India spectrum did not "cause a grief to the industry". "The telecom industry has not come back to me on the issue of Trai's decision to fix reserve price at Rs 18,000 for spectrum once it was put on in the public domain," he said on the...
03:56 AM, Aug 14, 2012
New Delhi: The Central government has moved the Supreme Court in the 2G case, saying it needs time till November 12 to start fresh auction. The government has also sought another 40 days to complete the auction and allocate licences. The Supreme Court had earlier set an August 31 deadline. The decision to move court was taken in the EGoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday. "Auctioneer has...
03:42 PM, Aug 09, 2012
New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications will move the Supreme Court to push the deadline for 2G auction to November. The Supreme Court had earlier set an August 31 deadline. The decision to move court was taken in the EGoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday. "Auctioneer has given us schedule...we will approach the Supreme Court to place before them the fact what government has done. Also, place...
01:28 PM, Aug 07, 2012
New Delhi: The meeting of a ministerial panel, headed by Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, to discuss new schedule for spectrum auction has been postponed to Tuesday. The Empowered Group of Ministers meeting was scheduled for Monday but was deferred due to the delay of Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's flight from Chandigarh where he went to lay the foundation stone of incubation centre for Software Technology Parks of India, sources...
07:37 PM, Aug 06, 2012
New Delhi: The Company Law Board on Friday stayed Telenor-controlled telecom firm Uninor's planned auction of its assets observing that the process followed appeared "very clever". Passing an interim order on company's minority partner Unitech's application, CLB Chairman Justice D R Deshmukh stayed the August 1 auction notice issued by Uninor observing that the proposed auction process appeared to be "very clever". The CLB said that it would hear both...
08:10 PM, Aug 03, 2012
New Delhi: The Cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss the reserve price and usage charges of the telecom spectrum to be auctioned, in line with a Supreme Court order. In February the Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences issued by then Telecom Minister A Raja in 2008 and asked the government to conduct fresh auctions. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by P Chidambaram (who has now taken...
08:51 AM, Aug 03, 2012
New Delhi: Bollywood star Aamir Khan can now take pride in owning legendary actor Shammi Kapoor's jacket, one among the six film memorabilia items he bid for, at the Osian's Cinefan auction here. Aamir spent a total of Rs.238,000 at the event. The auction was held as part of the ongoing 12th Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival. It turned out to be a success with sales of Rs.69.55 lakh and 86 percent...
11:45 AM, Aug 02, 2012
New Delhi: Various state governments and corporate bodies on Thursday supported in the Supreme Court the Centre's stand that all natural resources could not be allocated to private companies only through auction as directed by the apex court in 2G spectrum verdict. Appearing before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), contended the verdict was...
06:49 PM, Jul 26, 2012
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom has extended the deadline by 10 days till month-end for submission of bids by potential auctioneers that will manage the spectrum auction. As per new dates, potential auctioneer will have to submit bid by July 30 instead of July 20, DoT said in a release on Thursday. Sources said the auctioneer, which will manage auction of airwaves in 1800 Mhz and 800 Mhz will...
05:03 PM, Jul 19, 2012
New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear the Presidential Reference in the 2G spectrum case on Thursday and decide on its maintainability and merit. The issues that will be heard include whether it is mandatory for the Government to distribute all natural resources only through a public auction as directed in the apex court's February 2nd ruling or whether the Government can choose any other method such as the first-come-first-served...
09:21 AM, Jul 19, 2012
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday cited US President Barack Obama's recent criticism of the investment climate in India to question the Supreme Court's 2G spectrum judgement cancelling 122 telecom licences. The Attorney General told the apex court, "Even US President Barack Obama says it is not safe to invest in India. India will become a laughing stock internationally (in light of the SC's 2G judgement)." The argument came in...
02:28 PM, Jul 17, 2012
New Delhi: The Central Government on Thursday accepted before the Supreme Court the auction route for allocating 2G spectrum. Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the Supreme Court that the Centre favoured auction for future sale of spectrum. But the government is yet to decide on whether it favours auction for sale of all scarce natural resources to commercial parties. The apex court had on Wednesday said that it cannot...
12:19 PM, Jul 12, 2012
Chennai: The 2G auction should fetch a "reasonable market price" for the spectrum, Minister of State for IT and Telecommunications Sachin Pilot on Monday said. "Spectrum as a natural resources is the property of people of India. We must through the auctions, get reasonable market price for that commodity", he said told reporters here. Pilot added that the reconstituted empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram,...
10:45 PM, Jul 09, 2012
New Delhi: An inter-ministerial panel set up to supervise auction of spectrum for telecom services is learnt to have said it is not possible to meet the Supreme Court (SC) deadline of August 31 to complete the process. According to government sources, the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has conveyed that it is difficult to complete the auction exercise by August 31 due to delay in final decision from Empowered Group of...
03:47 AM, Jul 06, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will head a high-powered ministerial panel tasked with the onus of deciding on auction of telecom spectrum, a top DoT official said on Friday. The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has been reconstituted after Pranab Mukherjee, who was heading it, resigned as Finance Minister to contest the Presidential elections. "The EGoM will now be headed by Pawar," the official said, adding the panel may...
05:35 PM, Jun 29, 2012
New Delhi: Just months after the Supreme Court ruled that all natural resources have to be auctioned off instead of sold in any other manner, the Centre on Monday filed an affidavit in the apex court saying it was not possible to auction off all natural resources. The Supreme Court had made the ruling in the wake of the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Post the SC ruling, the BJP had...
07:22 PM, Jun 25, 2012
New York: A rare, still-working Apple I Computer from 1976 sold at Sotheby's auction house on Friday for $374,500, or more than 500 times its original retail price. The computer, one of only a handful in full working condition, had been estimated to sell for about $150,000 at the auctioneer's sale of books and manuscripts. The Apple computer, built by the company's founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, included the...
12:16 PM, Jun 16, 2012
London: Apple 1, the first ready-made personal computer, is expected to sell for up to $180,000 in an auction at Sotheby's, The Telegraph reported. The computer, consisting only of a bare motherboard, with microchips and circuitry exposed, is thought to be one of only around half a dozen working examples of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak's first hardware. Some 200 Apple 1s were built in 1976 and sold at retail...
10:29 AM, Jun 16, 2012
