Admitting to difficulties in identifying people using websites to spread communal hatred, the government on Wednesday said it was working with social networking sites to create an institutional mechanism to prevent misuse of technology.
Kapil Sibal said the operators need to change their mindset by moving away from voice services to data.
According to reports, CAG has sought details from the department of telecommunication on the total available spectrum in the country and how much has been allocated to private telecom operators from 2000 onward and at what value.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday warned that the growth of the telecom industry would be hurt if companies did not align their profit-making motives with the national interest and such a scenario could lead to over-regulation of the sector.
Amidst the controversy over the allocation of spectrum and grant of telecom licences, the government on Monday said all licences are proposed to be renewed after 10 years instead of the 20-year period earlier.
The fine is based on the loss estimated by internal committees of DoT to the national exchequer due to violation of licence norms by Vodafone.
Chiefs of leading telecom firms, including Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Anil Ambani of RCom and Vittorio Colao of Vodafone, met Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday and placed their views.
Whether Sibal has effectively defended Raja or not as a counsel is unclear, but his target seems to be the prime minister, feels M R Venkatesh.
Government wants social-networking websites to pre-screen content.
Government wants social-networking websites to pre-screen content.
Refusing to be defensive on the 2G spectrum scam, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday hit back at BJP for raking up the issue, alleging that "irregularities" had taken place during the Vajpayee government and these would be exposed within weeks.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal was on Saturday given additional charge of the law ministry while Road and Transport Minister C P Joshi was entrusted with the charge of the railways ministry, following the resignation of Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal on Friday.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said the mobile phone operators must move from voice-based revenue model and customers should gradually be charged only for data services and not for making calls.
The tablet will be produced domestically, and in this regard the government is talking to various manufacturers from across the world.
"The telecom companies under the (proposed)NTP-2011 will have to file an application 30 months prior for the renewal of the telecom licenses and it (the licence) will be renewed for 10 years unlike 20 years as of now," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Mobile phone firms are willing to let go of inactive subscribers because holding on to them doesn't help in any way in the new order.
On day when A Raja, jailed former minister of telecommunications, accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram in a lower court while trying to drag them 'legally' in the 2G spectrum scam, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal also picked up none else but Raja's lawyer's argument.
"Look at the policies of world around, we are far less protectionist than any other country in the world. There is no question of India becoming protectionist," Indian Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said here on Monday.
Sibal said the government will have enough radio waves for all operators after it is released from the defence services as well as the cancellation of 122 2G new licences by the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
The porn clip controversy in Karnataka Assembly led Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to take a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday saying the party is having "all the entertainment".
Official data released on Friday showed the economy grew by 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal as against 8 per cent during the same period of previous fiscal.
The Supreme Court on Friday severely criticised Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal for making statements undermining the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report on the 2G spectrum scam and asked him to behave with some sense of responsibility.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal brought the government into another stand-off with the Bhartiya Janata Party, accusing it of stalling Parliament in the winter session to prevent the cover up the National Democratic Alliance regime's lapses.
The Aakash project was Sibal's brainchild when he was the HRD minister.
Followers of activist Anna Hazare on Tuesday declared that they didn't want a confrontation with the Delhi police, in an apparent reaction to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's strong statement against the "abusive language" allegedly used by the activists.No defiance of prohibitory orders, no courting arrest by insisting on a fast at Jantar Mantar and no boycott of the joint committee the government formed at the insistence of Hazare to draft the Lokpal Bill, the group decided.
We had asked our readers for their opinion about the government's attempts to censor online content. An overwhelming number of readers condemned such a move and suggested that Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal and his colleagues should focus on more important issues instead:
The policy was earlier expected to be unveiled by December this year, but delays in receiving recommendations have pushed the date to next year.
Speaking at a national workshop organised by National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology, Sibal said that major thrust to achieve such a growth rate has to come from the secondary and tertiary sectors.
After the furore over his statement on content monitoring on Internet, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said the government has no intention of 'interfering' with the social media, nor does its plan to evolve guidelines amounting to restriction or regulation.
He said the industry should develop a set of guidelines for screening of objectionable content after it is uploaded.
Handset firms Karbonn and Lava International launched their smartphones, while Maxx Mobiles introduced its feature phone targetted at the rural market.
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Indian telecom sector has at present around 13 mobile phone service providers with some of them expected to go for consolidation once the final guidelines are in place.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said there are 154,688 post offices in the country, the largest postal network in the world.
The Minister was talking to media on sidelines of a function organised by Department of Telecommunication for new version of Internet addresses, IPv6.
The Ministry of Home Affairs in the past has raised concerns on increasing FDI in telecom sector.
Activist Anna Hazare claims that 85 per cent people in Telecom and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal's constituency in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, support the draft Lokpal Bill drawn up by 'civil society' activists.
The minister cited the example of Income Tax refunds, where sometimes officials demand money for giving a refund.
Rejecting Finance Minister P Chidambaram's zero-loss theory in coal allocation scam because no mining was done, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said his view was akin to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal's repudiation of CAG's estimation of presumptive loss in allocation of 2G spectrum.
Hitting back at Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal for accusing Bharatiya Janata Party of killing democracy, senior party leader Yashwant Sinha has said that the country's main opposition party has saved nation's democracy.
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