I&B Ministry
Day 31: All top winning cities show bids lower than clock round price in FM Phase III
NEW DELHI: There was virtually no activity on the 31st day in the FM Phase III e-auctions with the cumulatve winning price at the end of the 124th round rising by just Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1156.9 crore.
The smaller 31 cities that have so far got bids of Rs 1 – Rs 9 crore will call the shots as there appear to be no bidders for the larger cities.
The overall cumulative provisional winning price has risen over the total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities – Rs 550.18 crore – by Rs 606.72 crore or 110.27 per cent.
However, apart from the fact that 13 cities have not got a single bidder despite a month having passed, it is interesting that all the cities whose prices have remained static for a long period have in fact got bids lower than the clock round price (given in brackets in each case): Delhi – Rs 169.16 crore (Rs 170.86 crore) for one channel; Mumbai – Rs 122.81 crore (Rs 124.04 crore) for two channels; and Bengaluru – Rs 109.25 crore (Rs 110.34 crore).
The same also stands true for other cities having got bids of more than Rs 10 crore namely: Chennai at Rs 53.38 crore (Rs 53.92 crore), Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore (Rs 43.11 crore), Pune at Rs 42.03 crore (Rs 42.45 crore), Jaipur at Rs 28.34 crore (Rs 28.63 crore), Chandigarh at Rs 19.04 crore (Rs 19.23 crore), Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore (Rs 18.18 crore), Patna at Rs 17.89 crore (Rs 18.07 crore), Varanasi at Rs 17.49 crore (Rs 17.66 crore), Cochin at Rs 15.04 crore (Rs 15.80 crore), Nasik at Rs 14.66 crore (Rs 14.80 crore), Lucknow at Rs 14 crore (Rs 14.14 crore) and Jodhpur at Rs 11.44 crore (Rs 11.55 crore).
The number of channels remained the same – 97 channels in 56 cities, and the bids showed a minor rise in the cumulative reserve price by Rs 697.05 crore or 151.58 per cent against the aggregate reserve price of about Rs 459.8 crore. The Percentage Price Increment applicable for the Next Clock Round remained nil in all cities.
Cities expected to enter the Rs 10 crore club in the next few days appear to be Jodhpur, Kanpur, Rajkot, Amritsar, Madurai, and Aurangabad which have all got above Rs 6 crore each.
The 13 cities eluding bidders are Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.
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 124th round in Hyderabad.
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.
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.
