The Prime Minister's Office has issued a statement claiming that “no decision was taken by the Government to allocate space segment using S-Band Spectrum to Antrix or Devas.” The statement also claims that “hence, the question of revenue loss does not arise and any such reports are without basis in fact.”
The documented fact is that the agreement concluded on January 28, 2005 between Antrix Corporation Ltd. — the commercial arm of ISRO, which is under the Department of Space of the Government of India — and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. says otherwise. Antrix represents that it has the right to make available to Devas, on a 24x7 basis for a lease period, “part of a space segment capacity” on two satellites for services in the S-band. The amount promised by Devas is vastly below the commercial worth of the transponders leased and there are clearly financial implications for annulling the agreement.
We publish here the Antrix-Devas agreement: “Agreement for the Lease of Space Segment Capacity on ISRO/Antrix S-Band Spacecraft by Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd.”
Click >here for the Antrix-Devas agreement and >here for the agreement’s exhibits.
