Space commission's emergency meet on Feb 12

A day after the Indian Space Research Organisation claimed that there was no financial loss to the government on account of the 2005 contract between Antrix (commercial wing of the space agency) and Devas Multimedia, the Centre has called for an emergency meeting of the space commission on February 12.

This is the first meeting of the commission since the July 2, 2010 meet, which decided to terminate the Devas-Antrix deal. The meeting will take a call on the action taken report of the last meeting.

The government has been forced to act after relentless media pressure in the S Band investigation.

Meanwhile, the space commission's ATR will be submitted to the cabinet next week

The

agreement relates to ISRO's launching of two satellites for Devas that allegedly brought huge benefits to the company at the cost of the national exchequer. ISRO has said no loss accrued from the deal.

The contract was signed in 2005, sent for a review in 2009 and in 2010 it was decided it will be annulled. But that contract still hasn't been terminated.

S-band has massive commercial value in mobile telephony and also known as 2.5 GHz band used in 4G mobile technology like WiMax and LTE. The S-band spectrum is usually auctioned globally.