Apprehending foul play, sabotage or a hacking attempt, the govt asked for a re-run of the round.
By Raghvendra Rao
The ongoing e-auction of FM Radio channels witnessed a scare on Monday when parts of the data generated after the first round could not be decrypted. Apprehending foul play, sabotage or a hacking attempt, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting asked the e-auctioneer, M/s C1 India Private Limited, for a re-run of the first round and also sought a detailed report.
In his Independence Day address to the nation on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said “big people” were “worried” about the FM Radio e-auction and he was “under pressure”, with them questioning the need for an auction.
Top sources in the I&B ministry told The Indian Express that the ministry has informed the independent external monitor — appointed in consultation with the Central Vigilance Commission — overseeing the entire process about the incident.
“It could have been a technical glitch, but we are not taking any chances. The possibility of it being an attempt to hack into the e-auction cannot be ruled out at this stage. That’s why we are taking it seriously and have asked for a detailed probe report,” said a ministry source.
As the first round of the e-auctioning concluded on Monday (the 16th day of bidding), it came to light that the data of the bids pertaining to a few cities could not be decrypted. “As many as 60 rounds of bidding had successfully happened before this round. So yes, it was a bit unusual for this to have happened. That’s why we asked for a re-run so that no aspersions can be cast on the auction,” said the source.
The re-run forced a delay of around one-and-a-half hours and had a cascading effect on the subsequent three rounds which could only be concluded by late evening.
I&B ministry officials said that while the online e-auction system has several layers of firewalls and protections built in and the software was tried and tested by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology before being commissioned for this e-auction, it was too premature to rule out an attempted sabotage.
At the close of bidding on Monday, bids worth Rs 1,090 crore had been received for 92 channels in 56 cities against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 451 crore.
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