S-Band Spectrum Indian Government Needs New Law

S-Band Spectrum Indian Government Needs New Law

AGAINST the backdrop of the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, the Department of Space is mulling bringing a new law to keep the scarce S-Band spectrum out of commercial use and reserve it for strategic and societal purpose only.

The Department of Space has proposed that a new legislation is now desirable for use of S-Band which is a scarce natural resource and it should not be available for commercial utilization  The proposal suggests the S-Band should be reserved for "strategic and societal" use only.

It is learnt to have highlighted the fact that S-band spectrum is crucial for strategic and societal services.

The Integrated Space Cell Of the Integrated Defence Staff has projected its need for S-band for meeting the immediate requirements of the armed forces.

Central police forces including BSF, CISF. CRPF. and Coast Guard have also demanded a share in the S-band for meeting their secured communication needs. The Railways too has projected S-band requirement tor a train tracking system. The proposal, which is in a draft siage. says with the emerging requirements, there is an imminent need to preserve the S-band spectrum for vital strategic and societal applications.

The controversial S-Band spectrum deal between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix and private firm Devas Multimedia was scrapped in February. 2011.

The decision to annul the deal was laken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on the basis of a recommendation from the Space Commission.

The annulment came in the wake of a raging controversy over the deal for handing over 70 Mhz of S-Band spectrum to the private firm for Rs 1.000 crore. According to certain estimates, this deal may have resulted in a loss of Rs two lakh crore to the exchequer. A fallout of the cancellation of the deal has been arbitration cases against the government by various companies.