Rationalisation of spectrum reserve prices has helped the government get Rs.40,000 crore of bids on the opening day of the ongoing auction, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Tuesday.
Bold step “We took the bold step of rationalising reserve prices, and on the first day itself you have bids worth Rs.40,000 crore,” Mr. Sibal told journalists after launching the cloud computing services for government departments.
“If you have an irrational reserve price, the market will not be attractive. I have been saying that. Now, people should realise how irrational it was at that point in time for media and everybody to shout that the government is losing revenue,” Mr. Sibal said, while referring to lowering of the base price compared to 2013 auction, which did not evoke much response from mobile firms.
Goose that laysgolden eggs Referring to positive opening of auction, Mr. Sibal said: “This is a matter of great satisfaction that a sector which was in difficulty, working in an environment that was exceptionally negative, we have turned it around…You will continue to see it as the goose that lays golden eggs.”
‘GI Cloud’ Speaking about the ‘Government of India Cloud’ or ‘GI Cloud’, Mr. Sibal said it would accelerate delivery of e-services in the country while optimising ICT spending of the government. “It will also ensure optimum utilisation of the IT infrastructure and speed up the development and deployment of e-governance applications,” he noted.
The architectural vision of ‘GI Cloud’ encompasses a set of discrete cloud computing environments spread across multiple locations, built on existing or augmented infrastructure, following a set of common protocols, guidelines and standards issued by the Centre. Some of its features include self-service portal, multiple cloud solutions, secured VPN access and multi location cloud, an official statement said.
