I&B Ministry
Day 8: FM Phase III price touches Rs 869 crore; no bids yet in 13 cities
NEW DELHI: Even though the cumulative provisional winning price touched around Rs 869 crore against their aggregate reserve price of about Rs 395 crore at the end of 32 rounds on the eighth day of bidding for FM Phase III, no bids have come in for as many 13 cities.
A total of 83 channels in 56 cities became provisionally winning channels after four more rounds today (5 August). Thus the summation of provisional winning prices exceeded the total reserve price of the first batch by about Rs 319.11 crore or 58 per cent. The total reserve price of the first batch of 135 FM channels in 69 existing cities of Phase III is Rs 550.18 crore.
The Auction Activity Requirement of 80 per cent set at the beginning of the auction continued to remain the same on the eighth day.
The cities for which no bids have come so far are Asansol, Gulbarga, Mangalore, Mysore, Puducherry, Rajahmundry, Siliguri, Tiruchy, Tirunveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vijaywada and Warangal.
The demand over the price in many cities fell by up to three per cent below the aggregate demand.
The Percentage Price Increment (in INR) applicable for the Next Clock Round was five in Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.
The highest Provisional winning price – the same as the Clock round price at the start of the twenty-eighth round – was in Delhi at Rs 133.23 crore, followed by Mumbai at Rs 89.58 crore with both showing marginal increase compared to yesterday.
Among cities recording more than Rs 10 crore, it took a leap in Bengaluru at Rs 98.02 crore; and rose sizeably in Chennai at Rs 39.25 crore, Patna at Rs 17.04 crore; Jaipur at Rs 15.75 crore; and marginally in Chandigarh at Rs 16.57 crore and Cochin at Rs 10.52 crore.
Thus Bengaluru became another city, which may soon cross the Rs 100 crore figure.
On the other hand, Ahmedabad at Rs 42.68 crore, Pune at Rs 32.45 crore, Hyderabad at Rs 18 crore and Lucknow at Rs 14 crore remained static.
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.
