I&B Ministry
Day 28: Varanasi only city to show rise in FM Phase III auction, cumulative price up marginally
NEW DELHI: The bidding for FM Phase III appears to have slowed down yet again with the cumulative winning price at the end of the 112th round on the 28th day rising marginally to Rs 1156.2 crore in the e-auction for the first batch.
The focus remains on smaller cities as Ahmednagar, Bareilly and Hissar are marching forward.
Varanasi continued to march higher to Rs 17.49 crore, but Jodhpur at Rs 11.44 crore and Kohlapur with Rs 9.44 crore were stable. Others in the aisles to enter the Rs 10 crore club appear to be Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar, Madurai, and Aurangabad, which have all got above Rs 6 crore each.
The number of channels – 96 channels in 56 cities – remained the same but the total bids surpassed the cumulative reserve price by Rs 696.7 crore or 151.6 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.5 crore.
The cumulative provisional winning price has thus risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 606 crore or 110.1 per cent.
As was reported earlier by Indiantelevison.com, 13 cities namely Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal continue to elude bidders.
The demand in most cities fell by up to three per cent and by four per cent below the excess demand at the price in the 112th round in Hyderabad.
The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round rose to one each in Ahmednagar, Bareilly, Hissar, and Varanasi. There was no change in the other cities.
The winning price has risen by more than 100 per cent above their respective reserve prices in Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolhapur, Mumbai, Nasik, Patna, Pune, Rourkela and Varanasi, all of which got provisional winning bidders at prices more than double the respective reserve prices.
The provisional winning price in the top three cities reflected no change: Delhi – Rs 169.16 crore (for just one channel); Mumbai – Rs 122.81 crore (for two channels); and Bengaluru – Rs 109.25 crore. In addition, Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 42.03 crore, Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore, Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore, Patna at Rs 17.89 crore, Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore, Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore have remained static for some days now.
When queried as to why cities where the price has been static for many days are not being frozen, a senior I&B Ministry official said that the process was mechanical without human interference and therefore the computer would decide when it is time to stop. In any case, he added that someone could always come up with a higher bid even later.
I&B Ministry
MeitY & Reliance Foundation launch e-SafeHER cyber training for Women
Programme aims to train one million rural women in cyber safety over three years
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has partnered with Reliance Foundation and C-DAC Hyderabad to launch ‘e-SafeHER’, a nationwide cyber security awareness programme aimed at empowering one million women across rural India.
Anchored under the Information Security Education and Awareness Programme, the initiative will focus on building digital confidence and safe online practices among women who are increasingly using digital platforms for financial transactions, livelihoods and essential services.
The programme will be rolled out through a community-led model, with training delivered via women’s self-help groups and grassroots networks. C-DAC Hyderabad will develop and localise training content, while Reliance Foundation will drive on-ground implementation using its rural outreach platforms.
Speaking on the launch, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology secretary S Krishnan said, “e-SafeHER is an exciting opportunity to bring together knowledge and collaboration to build a cyber secure Bharat. Through this initiative, women from even the remotest regions will be empowered to participate safely in the digital ecosystem.”
Echoing this, Reliance Foundation director Isha Ambani said the initiative aims to equip women with the skills needed to navigate the online world safely. She added that the goal is to enable one million “Cyber Sakhis” who can confidently adopt digital tools to improve their lives and livelihoods.
The programme will begin with pilot training in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, before scaling nationwide through a phased approach. It will use multilingual content, audio-visual modules and blended learning formats to ensure accessibility and engagement.
Designed for long-term impact, e-SafeHER will be integrated into existing digital literacy and women’s empowerment programmes, avoiding the need for parallel infrastructure. The initiative also aims to drive measurable behavioural change, from improved awareness of cyber risks to safer digital transactions.
By combining policy, technology and grassroots reach, the programme looks to bridge not just the digital divide, but the digital safety gap, ensuring that inclusion goes hand in hand with security.
