A. Raja
Despite his age, Mr A. Raja was one of key representatives of the Dravida Munnetra Kazahagam (DMK) in the Union Cabinet. Mr Raja, 47, is an MP from Tamil Nau's Nilgiris constituency.
Mr Raja was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 and first served as a Minister of State from 1999 to 2003.
On re-electionin 2004, he became a Cabinet Minister in UPA's first term. In 2007, he became the Cabinet Minister for Communication and Information Technology. Back again in 2009, he was again appointed Cabinet Minister for Communication and IT until he resigned in 2010 over 2G.
R. K. Chandolia
A 1984 batch Indian Economic Service officer, Mr R. K. Chandolia was former Mr A. Raja's private secretary during the UPA first term when the 2G spectrum licences were awarded. When Mr Raja became the Telecom Minister again in UPA's second term, Mr Chandolia was promoted to the Joint Secretary rank. Therefore, technically, he could not serve as a private secretary to a Minister.
Mr Raja re-designated him Economic Adviser, which gave him charge of policy-related work.
He was reporting directly to the Secretary. Mr Chandolia reportedly interacted with all the licencees and it was he who, from DDG-Access Services Mr A. K. Srivastava's room, handed out letters of intent to the companies.
Siddhartha Behura
Mr Siddhartha Behura was Secretary, Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from January 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. He signed the files leading to the allocation of 122 licences. Mr Behura has maintained that he only implemented a decision taken by Mr A. Raja, before he became the DoT Secretary, and so had no choice in the matter. Mr Behura's predecessor, Mr D. S. Mathur, had refused to sign the files, delaying grant of the licences. Mr Mathur retired on December 31, 2007.
Vinod Goenka
Mr Vinod Goenka joined his father's construction firm in Mumbai and was said to be instrumental in its expansion as Dynamix group. The turning point came in 1999, when he partnered the Balwas.
The association blossomed into DB Realty that raised Rs 1,500 crore through an IPO. Mr Goenka and Mr Balwa have a 50 per cent stake in a telecommunication business. They sold 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom to Etislat in 2008. The company was renamed DB Etisalat.
Consequent to the arrest and resignation of Mr Shahid Balwa as Managing Director, DB Realty's prospects centred round him.
Sanjay Chandra
Mr Sanjay Chandra, one of the most recognised faces of the real estate sector, at 38 years is the Managing Director of India's second largest realty company Unitech Ltd. He joined Unitech in 2001.
Under him, Unitech concluded two rounds of fund-raising via Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) in 2009 to service the burgeoning debt levels and to fund new projects. Unitech Ltd Web site credits him with “diversifying the company into the telecom business” with Unitech Wireless