The CBI has filed a charge sheet against former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, Devas Multimedia a Bangalore based satellite communications company, and top executives of ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation for allegedly causing losses of Rs 578 core to the government exchequer. Devas was supposed to develop a project to launch satellite-based multimedia services (including video, audio) via mobile phones and broadcasting mediums in India using the rare S-band spectrum. The project was meant to broadcast TV signals and mobile signals without the use of costly mobile towers and equipment, mostly for use in rural areas. The future of the project is now uncertain. The CBI report added that during 2004 to 2011 the executive director of Antrix was involved in criminal conspiracy along with advisors of a US-based company. The two parties allegedly violated government guidelines in providing rights to Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia for delivery of video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones via the S-band spectrum. The spectrum was to be beamed through ISRO’s GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites. Note that his kind of mobile services using S-band spectrum is already live in China since 2007 and it has launched government owned Mobile TV services to its citizens successfully using this rare spectrum. More here. A timeline of events leading to CBI intervention A part of the following timeline has been aggregated from an Indian Express report from October 2015. In 2005: ISRO’s Antrix Corporation inked a deal with Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia through a 12-year lease…
