2G spectrum scam

The 2G spectrum scandal involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would 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 INR176,645 crore (US$35.24 billion) as valued by Comptroller and Auditor General of India based on 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices which held in 2010. However the exact loss is disputed. In a charge sheet filed on 2 April 2011 by the investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the agency pegged the loss at INR30,984.55 crore (US$6.18 billion) whereas Telecom Regulatory Authority of India says that the Govt. has actually gained INR3,000 crore (US$598.5 million) by selling the spectrum. Similarly Kapil Sibal, minister for communications & IT, said in 2011 during a press conference that no loss was caused by selling 2G licenses. All the speculations of profit, loss and no-loss were put to rest on 2 February 2012 when the Supreme Court of India delivered judgement on a public interest litigation (PIL) which was directly related to the 2G spectrum scam. The Supreme Court declared allotment of spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" and quashed all the 122 licenses issued in 2008 during tenure of A. Raja (then minister for communications & IT) the main accuse in the 2G scam case. The court further said that A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and "virtually gifted away important national asset".

The issuing of licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public notice when the Indian Income Tax Department was investigating political lobbyist Nira Radia. The government's investigation and the government's reactions to the findings in the investigation were the subject of debate, as were the nature of the Indian media's reactions. Much of the credit of bringing this whole scam into the public light (by pursuing it in the court of law) goes to Subramanian Swamy who is the chief petitioner for this case in the court of law.

Background

India is divided into 22 telecoms zones and there are a total 281 zonal licences in the market. According to the telecom policy of India, when a licence is allotted to an operator some start-up spectrum is bundled along with it. The policy does not have a provision for auctioning the spectrum. In year 2008, 122 new second generation (2G) Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were given to telecom companies at the price of 2001 and on first come first serve basis. As per the charge sheet filled by 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 of Comptroller 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. 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. In the same month Ministry of Finance wrote a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DOT) raising concerns over the procedure adopted by it but DOT went ahead with its plan of giving 2G licenses. It preponed 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 and 4.30 pm on that very day would be issued licences in accordance with the said policy. Companies like Unitech & Swan Telecom got licenses without any prior telecom experience. Swan Telecom got the license even though it did not meet eligibility criteria. Swan got license for INR1,537 crore (US$306.63 million) and then it sold 45% stake to UAE based company Etisalat for INR4,200 crore (US$837.9 million). Unitech Wireless, a subsidiary of the Unitech Group, got license for INR1,661 crore (US$331.37 million) and later sold 60% stake for INR6,200 crore (US$1.24 billion) to Norway based company Telenor .

Following is the list of companies who got the 122 2G licenses during the tenure of A. Raja as Telecom Minister. (The licenses were later quashed by Supreme Court)

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 company Telenor 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 to Etisalat 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 INR2,700 crore (US$538.65 million). So out of 122 spectrum licenses sold in 2008 Idea Cellular owns 13 licenses
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. In May 2009, Sahara Group bought 11.7% stake in S Tel
Tata Teleservices	Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, North East	3	In late 2008 promoters of Tata Teleservices sold 26% equity stake to a Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo for about INR13,070 crore (US$2.61 billion) or an enterprise value of INR50,269 crore (US$10.03 billion).

Name of Company

Telecom regions for which license was granted

Number of license granted

Remarks

 

 

 

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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.

 

Politicians accused

Politicians named as accused in the charge sheet filed by CBI in the Special CBI Court ,allegations levelled against them by CBI and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court.[24][25][26][27]

 

1. 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)

§ 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 INR3,000 crore (US$598.5 million) as bribe for bringing forward the cut-off date for applications for spectrum from the initial 1 October 2007 to 25 September 2007. The deadline switch eliminated many applications, enabling Raja to favour a few with spectrum. The agencies also alleged that he used bank accounts under his wife's name in Mauritius and Seychelles to chanelise the kickbacks he received. A charge sheet 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. 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.

§ 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.

§ Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February, 2011 and lodged in Tihar Jail since then (as of April 2012) He never applied for bail. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

2. 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).

§ Allegation - As per the charge sheet 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. CBI alleges that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route INR200 crore (US$39.9 million) to Kalaignar TV. According to CBI, Kanimozhi was in regular touch with A Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works. 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.

§ 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.

§ Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 20 May 2011 on the basis of the report submitted by Income Tax Department. Granted bail on 28 November, 2011 after spending 188 days in judicial custody. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Bureaucrats accused

Bureaucrats named as accused in the charge sheet filed by CBI in the Special CBI Court, allegations levelled against them by CBI and Income Tax Department and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court.

 

§ Siddharth Behura :

§ Designation - Telecom Secretary when licenses were granted.

§ Allegation - According to the charge sheet 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.

§ 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.

§ Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011 and lodged in Tihar jail since then (as of early April 2012). Applied for bail a number of times but every time bail got rejected. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ RK Chandolia :

§ Designation – Raja's private secretary when licenses were granted.

§ Allegation - As per the charge sheet 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.

§ 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

§ Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011. 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. Chandolia appealed against High Court order in Supreme Court and on 2 January 2012 the apex court extended interim stay on High Court's order. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Corporate executives accused

Corporates named as accused in the charge sheet filed by Income Tax Department in the Special Court and charges framed against them by the Special court.

 

§ Sanjay Chandra

§ Designation - Former MD, 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

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Gautam Doshi :

§ Designation - Group MD, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

§ 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

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Hari Nair :

§ Designation - Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

§ 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

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Surendra Pipara :

§ Designation - Senior vice- President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

§ 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

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Vinod Goenka :

§ Designation - Promoter and Managing Director, DB Realty & 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, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under thePrevention of Corruption Act

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Shahid Balwa :

§ Designation – Promoter, DB Realty & 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 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under thePrevention of Corruption Act.

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 8 February 2011, granted bail on 29 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Asif Balwa (younger brother of Shahid Balwa) :

§ Designation – Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables

§ 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 Prevention of Corruption Act

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011, granted bail on 28 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Rajiv Agarwal :

§ Designation - Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables

§ 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 Prevention of Corruption Act

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011, granted bail on 28 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Sharath Kumar

§ Designation – Managing Director, Kalaignar TV

§ 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 Prevention of Corruption Act

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 May 2011, granted bail on 28 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Ravi Ruia :

§ Designation - Vice Chairman, Essar Group

§ Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.

§ Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Anshuman Ruia :

§ Designation - Diector, Essar Group

§ Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.

§ Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Vikas Saraf :

§ Designation - Director for strategy and planning, Essar Group

§ Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.

§ Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ IP Khaitan :

§ Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom

§ Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.

§ Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ Kiran Khaitan :

§ Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom

§ Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code.

§ Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Film and entertainment persons accused

§ Karim Morani :

§ Designation - (Promoter and Director, Cineyug Films)

§ Allegation - In the charge sheet 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 of INR200 crore (US$39.9 million) to Kalaignar TV of which Kanimozhi, was a director. According to the charge sheet, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, promoters of DB Realty transferred INR209.25 crore (US$41.75 million) to Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables of which Shahid Balwa's younger brother Asif Balwa was a director. Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables then transferred a sum of INR200 crore (US$39.9 million) to Cineyug Films whose promoter Karim Morani transferred it to Kalaignar TV.

§ 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 the Prevention of Corruption Act.

§ Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 30 May 2011, granted bail on 28 November 2011. As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Corporations accused

Companies named in the charge sheet filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department in the Special court and charges framed against them.

 

§ 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.

§ Status - As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ 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.

§ Status - As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

§ 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.

§ Status - As of April 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Other companies named in the charge sheet are:

 

§ Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd

§ Loop Mobile India Ltd

§ Essar Tele Holding

§ Essar (Parent group of Essar Tele Holding)]Media persons' dubious role

Telecom companies affected by cancellation of licenses

The table below shows list of companies whose license were cancelled.

Name of company	Parent group	Number of licenses cancelled
Uninor	Joint venture between Unitech Group of India and Telenor of Norway Unitech Group	22
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited, now MTS India	Joint venture between Shyam group of Indian and Sistema of Russia	21
Loop Mobile formerly BPL Mobile	Owned by Khaitan Holding Group	21
Videocon Telecommunications Limited	Owned by Videocon group of India	21
Etisalat-DB	Joint venture between Swan Telecom of India and Etisalat of UAE	15
Idea Cellular	Aditya Birla Groupof India (49.05%), Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia (15%) & Providence Equity(10.6%)of USA	13
S Tel	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[189]	6
Tata Teleservices	Owned by Tata Group of India	3

After effects 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).

§ Telenor dumps and sues Unitech - On 21 February 2012 Telenor, majority stakeholder in Uninor, dumped its Indian partnerUnitech and sued it seeking “indemnity and compensation”.

§ 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 Reay for fraud and misrepresentation.

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 INR 1.76 lakh crore, the Indian opposition parties unanimously demanded formation of Joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate 2G scam. However the Indian government rejected the demand of opposition. Later when the winter session of parliament began on 9 November 2010, opposition again pressed for(JPC) but once again the demand was rejected. The opposition's demand for (JPC) gained further momentum whenComptroller and Auditor General of India's report was tabled in Parliament on 16 November 2011. The opposition blocked parliament proceedings and again pressed for JPC With Govt again rejecting the demand there was logjam in parliament. Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar tried to break the logjam but her efforts didn't bear any fruit.] 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. 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.

§ 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. By mid November A. Raja resigned.

§ 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. 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.

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