The crux of the S-band deal failure is the delay in the execution of the contract by Antrix. Way back in 2005, Antrix promised to deliver two satellites and transponders within three years at a certain price and received some advance payment. Six years later, not a single satellite has appeared on the horizon. I am yet to see a report analysing the causes for this inordinate delay. During this six-year period, many novel and popular applications have been developed worldwide for the S-band spectrum and its price has skyrocketed. Nobody could have foreseen this in 2005 and it is no use ignoring the fact that the contract is undervalued. If some party signed a contract in 2005 to deliver gold worth 10 gm at the prevailing price and the gold is yet to be delivered, this party will stand to lose money too. In a fixed-price contract, time is of the essence. So it would not be correct for the government to intervene to bail Antrix out of the difficult situation. Let the two parties negotiate an amicable termination themselves.
K S Prabhu, Philadelphia
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