2g Note

Hours after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh renewed his criticism of the NDA government's sudden ban on high value notes that he has called "organised loot", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivered a stinging rebuttal. Mr Jaitley said an exercise backed by "an ethical and moral rationale" was being described as loot, before going on to refer t...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appealed for the "House to function smoothly" ahead of the resumption of the Budget session. Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had warned that "the session will restart on a note of confrontation, not consensus".

The controversial press note regarding 2G licences was changed at the last minute by then Telecom Minister A Raja in 2008 with a different pen, former Solicitor General G E Vahanvati told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Tuesday, contending that his trust had been betrayed in the process.

The telecom department wants to start the upcoming 2G auction by 11th March. In a note to the Empowered group of Ministers, which was viewed by NDTV, the telecom department wants to start the process of inviting successful bidders by 22nd February, finalise the bidders by 6th March and start the auction prices by 11th.

The EGoM, in its agenda note for the auction, had recommended treating existing telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone as new entrants, and had also sought compulsory participation from them.

RBI Governor D Subbarao today appeared before a Parliamentary panel and said he did not agree with the controversial Finance Ministry note which suggested that Finance Minister P Chidambaram could have insisted on auctioning the 2G spectrum.

The telecom department has finalised a note for the cabinet which decides reserve prices for 2G auction as well as the spectrum usage charge to be paid by successful bidders.

The controversy over how the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) arrived at the controversial loss figure in the 2G scam doesn't seem to end. NDTV has now accessed an internal note which indicates that the government auditor took a cue from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) while calculating the revenue loss to the government.

NDTV has accessed a letter written by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Prime Minister. Written on September 26, a day after Mr Mukherjee met the PM in New York when the 2G note crisis was climaxing, the letter explains Mr Mukherjee's position. The Finance Minister says he was never in favour of submitting a formal note on spectrum allocatio...

A month ago, Pranab Mukherjee had emphatically stated that an inference about his fellow minister P Chidambaram in a controversial note on the telecom scam was not his. Email exchanges between the Cabinet Secretariat and the Finance Ministry, that NDTV has now accessed, seem to support Mr Mukherjee's assertion. The emails show that officials in the...

The note that questioned P Chidambaram's actions during the telecom scam continues to cause political aftershocks. The BJP alleges that a copy of the note was tampered with before it was submitted to a parliamentary committee studying the telecom scam.

The Finance Ministry's note, which seemed to hint that a section of the government questioned whether Mr Chidambaram acted strongly enough, provided a windfall to the opposition and led to new demands that his role be formally investigated by the CBI. The Supreme Court is now considering that option.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has dismissed as "bunkum" reports that he had offered to resign following controversy over a note of his Ministry on the 2G issue.

As the two-day national executive meet of the BJP concluded today in New Delhi, the party, not mincing any words in its attack on the government on the recent 2G note row, called the truce between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram a farce.

P Chidambaram did not blink today when he was asked if he had offered to resign at the height of what's known as the 2G note controversy. "I have a short memory," the Home Minister said at a press briefing, "I do not remember whether I offered to resign."

Hours after former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh renewed his criticism of the NDA government's sudden ban on high value notes that he has called "organised loot", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley delivered a stinging rebuttal. Mr Jaitley said an exercise backed by "an ethical and moral rationale" was being described as loot, before going on to refer t...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today appealed for the "House to function smoothly" ahead of the resumption of the Budget session. Earlier, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had warned that "the session will restart on a note of confrontation, not consensus".

The controversial press note regarding 2G licences was changed at the last minute by then Telecom Minister A Raja in 2008 with a different pen, former Solicitor General G E Vahanvati told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Tuesday, contending that his trust had been betrayed in the process.

The telecom department wants to start the upcoming 2G auction by 11th March. In a note to the Empowered group of Ministers, which was viewed by NDTV, the telecom department wants to start the process of inviting successful bidders by 22nd February, finalise the bidders by 6th March and start the auction prices by 11th.

The EGoM, in its agenda note for the auction, had recommended treating existing telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone as new entrants, and had also sought compulsory participation from them.

RBI Governor D Subbarao today appeared before a Parliamentary panel and said he did not agree with the controversial Finance Ministry note which suggested that Finance Minister P Chidambaram could have insisted on auctioning the 2G spectrum.

The telecom department has finalised a note for the cabinet which decides reserve prices for 2G auction as well as the spectrum usage charge to be paid by successful bidders.

The controversy over how the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) arrived at the controversial loss figure in the 2G scam doesn't seem to end. NDTV has now accessed an internal note which indicates that the government auditor took a cue from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) while calculating the revenue loss to the government.

NDTV has accessed a letter written by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to the Prime Minister. Written on September 26, a day after Mr Mukherjee met the PM in New York when the 2G note crisis was climaxing, the letter explains Mr Mukherjee's position. The Finance Minister says he was never in favour of submitting a formal note on spectrum allocatio...

A month ago, Pranab Mukherjee had emphatically stated that an inference about his fellow minister P Chidambaram in a controversial note on the telecom scam was not his. Email exchanges between the Cabinet Secretariat and the Finance Ministry, that NDTV has now accessed, seem to support Mr Mukherjee's assertion. The emails show that officials in the...

The note that questioned P Chidambaram's actions during the telecom scam continues to cause political aftershocks. The BJP alleges that a copy of the note was tampered with before it was submitted to a parliamentary committee studying the telecom scam.

The Finance Ministry's note, which seemed to hint that a section of the government questioned whether Mr Chidambaram acted strongly enough, provided a windfall to the opposition and led to new demands that his role be formally investigated by the CBI. The Supreme Court is now considering that option.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has dismissed as "bunkum" reports that he had offered to resign following controversy over a note of his Ministry on the 2G issue.

As the two-day national executive meet of the BJP concluded today in New Delhi, the party, not mincing any words in its attack on the government on the recent 2G note row, called the truce between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram a farce.

P Chidambaram did not blink today when he was asked if he had offered to resign at the height of what's known as the 2G note controversy. "I have a short memory," the Home Minister said at a press briefing, "I do not remember whether I offered to resign."