ISRO’s Antrix Corporation to be restructured (Lead)
February 12th, 2011 - 9:16 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) India’s Space Commission Saturday decided to restructure Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), whose deal with a private company related to scarce S-band spectrum has led to a controversy. Official sources said the Space Commission has decided to have a separate chairman to head Antrix. At present, ISRO head K. Radhakrishnan is also the chairman of Antrix corporation.
The sources said the decision to have a new chairman for Antrix was taken in view of expansion of its business.
The meeting was attended by V. Narayanasamy, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and top officials of ISRO.
The controversy relates to a 2005 agreement between Antrix and Devas multimedia for launch of two satellites and related allocation of S-band spectrum.
After the row broke out over alleged loss of revenue to the government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday formed a two-member commission comprising Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi and Space Commission member Roddam Narasimha to probe the matter.
The government has denied that the nation suffered revenue losses in the allocation of space spectrum using S-band - high value and scarce radio waves - but admitted that the agreement between Antrix and Devas had not explicitly mentioned the end-use terms.
It said that the agreement was being cancelled.
The opposition has attacked the government over the deal, saying it should look into aspects of ownership and funding of Devas.
- PM forms commission to probe ISRO agreement - Feb 10, 2011
- PM sets up panel to probe ISRO-Devas agreement (Lead) - Feb 10, 2011
- No cheap selling of spectrum in Antrix-Devas deal: Review Committee - Feb 05, 2012
- Review panel on ISRO deal a cover-up: BJP (Lead) - Feb 10, 2011
- ISRO forms panel to probe Antrix-Devas spectrum deal - Feb 12, 2011
- Spectrum will be sold only through auction: Pilot - Feb 06, 2012
- Devas welcomes probe into accord with ISRO - Feb 11, 2011
- Scientist resigns over blacklisting of ISRO stalwarts (Lead) - Feb 24, 2012
- Panel shows Devas deal was not wrong: Ex-scientist - Feb 05, 2012
- Committee appointed to review Antrix Devas deal on S-band spectrum - Feb 10, 2011
- Report on Devas-Antrix deal soon, says government - Mar 10, 2011
- ISRO agreement to be annulled, no mention of end-use terms (Roundup) - Feb 08, 2011
- Devas deal: Probe team indicts ex-ISRO chief, three others (Second Lead) - Feb 05, 2012
- Cabinet scraps ISRO-Devas deal - Feb 17, 2011
- Devas deal: Former ISRO chief, three others blamed; deny charges (Roundup) - Feb 05, 2012
Tags: antrix corporation, band spectrum, chaturvedi, commercial arm, commission member, indian space research, indian space research organisation, isro, launch, manmohan singh, member commission, menon, national security advisor, prime minister manmohan, prime minister manmohan singh, radhakrishnan, radio waves, revenue losses, space commission, two satellites