The 2G spectrum scam involved Indian government officials and ministers undercharging mobile companies for licenses, leading to a massive financial loss estimated at $38.27 billion. Key figures included A. Raja, the telecom minister, and corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, with media allegations of complicity in the corruption. The scandal resulted in widespread political and legal ramifications, including the arrest of several officials and the revocation of numerous telecom licenses by the Supreme Court.

3. • About 2G.
• What is 2G spectrum scam?
• Who are Involved?
• Media Responses & Market
Response
• Steps Taken by Govt.
• Political Response to Scam.
• Conclusion & Your
Thoughts.

4. • ‘2G’ means: “Second-Generation Wireless
Telephone Technology”

6. 1. The 2G spectrum scam involved officials and ministers in the Government of
India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency
allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell
phones.
2. According to a report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on
money collected from 3G licenses, the loss to the exchequer was 176,379 crore
(US$38.27 billion).
3. The issuing of the 2G licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public
notice when the Indian Income Tax Department investigated political lobbyist
Niira Radia and the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's
complaints on record [With Case type: Write Petition (Civil),Case No:10, Year:2011].
The case details of the main PIL filed with the supreme court is Type: Write Petition
(Civil),Case No:423, Year:2010.

7. One of the main person behind the India’s
Largest Corporate Fraud.
A. Raja is an Indian politician from the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK)
political party. He is a member of the 15th
Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris
constituency of Tamil Nadu.
B. Raja was first elected to the Lok Sabha in
1996 and first served as minister of state
from 1999 to 2003. On being re-elected to
the Lok Sabha in 2004, he became a
cabinet minister in the UPA government. In
2007, he became cabinet minister for
communication and information
technology.
C. On being re-elected in 2009 he was again
appointed cabinet minister for
communication and information
technology until being tainted in the 2G
spectrum scam and resigning in 2010.

10. Anil Ambani - Reliance Group (ADAG)
Shahid Balwa - DB Realty and DB Etisalat (Swan Telecom)
Vinod Goenka - Dynamix Group
Venugopal Dhoot - Videocon Group
Prashant Ruia - Essar Group
All of them have either been question by the CBI or are
prospective suspects in the scam.

11. Nira Radia, a former airline entrepreneur turned
corporate lobbyist whose conversations with
politicians and corporate entities were recorded by
the government authorities and leaked creating
the “Nira Radia tapes controversy”.
Barkha Dutt, an NDTV journalist alleged to have
lobbied for A.Raja's appointment as minister.
Vir Sanghvi, a Hindustan Times editor alleged
to have edited articles to reduce blame in the Nira
Radia tapes.

12. • The first casualty in Stock Markets once Raja
was arrested was DB Realty.
• DB Realty had given 200+ crores to Kalaignar
TV (owned by Karunanidhi's Wife) .
• The news led to 20% fall in the stock prices of
DB Realty.

14. Relationship between
media
&
goveRnment
• Media sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that
Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew that corporate lobbyist
Nira Radia was influencing the decisions of A. Raja.
• The critics alleged that Dutt and Sanghvi knew about
corruption between the government and the media industry,
supported this corrupt activity, and suppressed news
reporting the discovery of the corruption.

15. The tapes leaked to the public include conversations
between Nira Radia and Ratan Tata. Tata petitioned
the government to acknowledge his right to privacy
and demanded accountability for the leak, with the
Minister for Home Affairs, CBI, Indian Income Tax
Department, the Department of Telecommunication,
and the Department of Information Technology as
respondents in the petition.

16. • Nira Radia
• M.Karunanidhi
• A Raja (Telecom minister)
• Arun Jaitley
• Barkha dutt (Journalist)
• Arun Shourie
• Pramod Mahajan

17. Unitech Group:
A real estate company entering the telecom industry with its 2G bid; sold
60% of its company stake at huge profit to Telenor after buying licensing
(Including land values properties for towers).
Swan Telecom:
It sold 45% of its company stake at huge profit to Emirates
Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) after buying licensing.
Videocon Telecommunications Limited
Reliance Communications
Sistema Shyam Mobile (MTS) – Sistema Mobile Russia
Tata Communications
Vodafone Essar
Loop Mobile
S Tel
Allianz Infra
Corporations involved

19. response to sCaM
• In early November 2010 Jayalalithaa accused the Tamil
Nadu state chief minister M Karunanidhi of protecting
A.Raja from corruption charges and called for A. Raja's
resignation. By mid November A.Raja resigned.
• In mid November the comptroller Vinod Rai issued show-
cause notices to Unitech, S Tel, Loop Mobile, Datacom
(Videocon), and Etisalat to respond to his assertion that all
of the 85 licenses granted to these companies did not have
the up-front capital required at the time of the application
and were in other ways illegal.

20. In response to the various allegations , the Govt of
India has replaced the then incumbent Telecom
minister A Raja with Kapil Sibal who has taken up
this charge in addition to being the Union minister for
Human Resources Development.Mr Sibal contends
that the "notional" losses quoted are a result of
erroneous calculations and insists that the actual
losses are nil.

21. • The CBI conducted raids on Raja and four other
telecom officials - former telecom secretary
Siddharth Behura, Raja's personal secretary R K
Chandolia, member telecom K Sridhar and DoT
deputy director general A K Srivastava on 8
December 2010.
• Raja, Behura and Chandolia were arrested on Feb
2nd 2011.
• The Supreme Court on 2ND
FEB 12 ordered the
government to revoke all 122 telecoms licences
issued under a scandal-tainted 2008 sale.
response to
sCaM

22. Response to
scaM
• UNITECH WIRELESS -- 22 licences
• LOOP TELECOM PRIVATE LTD -- 21 licences
• VIDEOCON TELECOMMUNICATIONS -- 21 licences
• IDEA CELLULAR -- 13 licences
• TATA TELESERVICES -- 3 licences
• MOSTELY AFFECTED TELECOM COMPANY IS
UNINOR