Telecom spectrum auction receives winning bids worth Rs. 77,146 crore

The nationwide COVID-19 Vaccination phase to cover senior citizens and people above 45 years with co-morbidities has begun.The registration for vaccination opened at 9 this morning at www.cowin.gov.in.Citizens can register and book an appointment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the COWIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as Arogya Setu.The vaccine will be administered free of cost at ten thousand government hospitals to these groups while the cost of the vaccine at around 20 thousand private Vaccination Centres will be borne by the people.Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has said that both the COVID vaccines- Covishield and Covaxin are safe and perfect as far as immunogenicity is concerned.

-Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that on the first day of Telecom spectrum auction on Monday, winning bids received till 6 PM were worth 77 thousand 146 crore rupees. This has already substantially exceeded pre-bid estimates of 45 thousand crore rupees. He said, bidding took place for spectrum in 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100 and 2,300 Megahertz.Prasad said, participants did not bid for 700 and 2,500 Megahertz. The auction of spectrum commenced at 10 AM yesterday and four rounds of bidding took place till 6 PM. Another one or two rounds are expected today. Three bidders, Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited and Reliance Jio Infocomm are participating in the auction. Bidder-wise details of quantity won and amounts payable will be available only after conclusion of the auction. The e-auction is based on Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending Auction methodology. Available spectrum in all bands is simultaneously put to auction in all the Licensed Service Areas.

-Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced that COVID vaccination will be absolutely free in the entire state. Kumar said, such facility will be made available even at private hospitals.He said, it will be facilitated by the State Government. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday received the first shot of COVID-19 vaccine at IGIMS, Patna. He urged people of the state to get themselves inoculated. Kumar also said, arrangements have been made at the state-run super specialty hospital IGIMS, Patna for inoculation of all members of the State Legislature. 

-Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry launched the field assessment of Swachh Survekshan -2021 at a web event in New Delhi on Monday. This will be the sixth edition of the annual cleanliness survey.Swachh Survekshan was introduced in 2016 as a competitive framework to encourage cities to improve the status of urban sanitation while encouraging large scale citizen participation.Speaking at the webinar, Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Durga Shankar Mishra said, the survey has led to a spirit of healthy competition among cities and towns.The journey that started in 2016 with only 73 cities with million plus population has grown manifold, with 434 cities in 2017, 4,203 cities in 2018, 4,237 cities in 2019 and 4,242 cities in 2020.Cities have been regularly filling in their data, updating their progress in the MIS along with running several citizen centric campaigns in preparation of Swachh Survekshan-2021.More than 2,000 assessors will go on the field to assess the performance of cities this time.Every year, the on-field assessments takes place between 4th January to 31st January.

-India is sending a consignment of 1,000 metric tonnes of rice and one lakh tablets of HCQ to Madagascar.External Affairs Ministry said, this is in response to the urgent appeal made by Madagascar for international solidarity and assistance to deal with the humanitarian crisis in South of Madagascar due to severe drought. The humanitarian assistance is being delivered on-board INS Jalashwa and is expected to reach the Port of Ehoala in Madagascar by  March. 21.The prompt Indian assistance to Madagascar was conveyed  by External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar in a phone conversation with Foreign Minister of Madagascar Dr. Tehindrazanarivelo Djacoba A.S Oliva. During the conversation, Dr Jaishankar recalled the excellent bilateral ties of friendship between India and Madagascar and that India has always been among the first responders when it comes to assist the people of Madagascar in such humanitarian crisis.