The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, is scheduled to meet on Thursday and likely to discuss the status of court cases that can impact spectrum auction process.

The Government may get over Rs 9,497 crore from sale of CDMA band spectrum in the second round of auctions in March, and one-time fee on airwaves held by existing operators. Central government estimates revenue of Rs 9,500 crore from sale of CDMA spectrumCDMA auction likely to fetch Rs 9,500 cr

Electronics giant Panasonic plans to eliminate an additional 10,000 jobs by next spring, most of them at units outside Japan, company executives said.

The government has taken steps to ensure availability of spectrum and its allocation in a transparent manner, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday while expressing confidence the months of tough challenges faced by the sector is coming to an end.

In a bid to provide some relief to farmers from the increased power tariffs, the state government has decided to give additional subsidy of Rs 275 crore annually on permanent agriculture power connections. The annual subsidy will now be raised to RS 2200 crore from RS 1925 crore previously.

The second round of spectrum auction will begin in March after the Cabinet decides on reducing reserve price of 800 MHz band, used for offering CDMA-based mobile services.

Government does not intend to change the policy to auction spectrum for mobile phone operators, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Senior IAS officer O P Rawat will hold additional charge of Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched the fourth generation (4G) mobile broadband services in Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

The Centre on Tuesday offered to provide additional security forces to Uttar Pradesh to help the state government in maintaining peace in violence-affected Faizabad.