The Union Cabinet today cleared the way for mega auction of spectrum. Briefing media in New Delhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, more than 2300 Megahertz of spectrum is available for auction across seven bands. <br/><br/>The bands are 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz. The availability of such a large quantity of spectrum will give a fillip for Digital India programme. It will allow telecom operators to purchase spectrum at par with international holding values and end spectrum shortage.<br/><br/>The Cabinet also approved extension of timeline for taking over 50 per cent of Outstanding Debt of DISCOMs, by States under the UDAY scheme. <br/><br/>The extended timeline of one year upto 31st March, 2017 will allow States which could not participate in UDAY earlier to join in. The Cabinet also gave its nod for special package for employment generation and promotion of exports in Textile and Apparel sector.<br/><br/>The special package announced today is expected to generate one crore jobs over next three years in the textile and apparel industry. <br/><br/>It will also attract investment of 74 thousand crore rupees over next three years and lead to cumulative increase of 30 billion dollars in exports.<br/><br/>Government shall bear the entire 12 percent of the employers' contribution of the Employees' Provident Fund Scheme for new employees for first 3 years who are earning less than 15,000 rupees per month. <br/><br/>Overtime hours for workers will not exceed 8 hours per week and fixed term employment shall be introduced for the garment sector.The majority of new jobs are likely to go to women since the garment industry employs nearly 70 per cent women workforce.<br/><br/>Besides, the Cabinet also approved a set of tax and production incentives for creating additional employment in garment manufacturing sector. <br/><br/>The incentives include increase in the subsidy from 15 per cent to 25 per cent which is being given to the garment units. These measures form a part of the special package announced for job creation and export promotion in textile and apparel sector.

The Union Cabinet today cleared the way for mega auction of spectrum. Briefing media in New Delhi, Finance minister Arun Jaitley said, more than 2300 Megahertz, MHz, spectrum are available for auction across seven bands. <br/><br/>The bands are 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz. The availability of such a large quantity of spectrum will give a fillip for Digital India programme. It will allow telecom operators to purchase spectrum at par with international holding values and end spectrum shortage.<br/><br/>The Cabinet also approved extension of timeline for taking over 50 per cent of Outstanding Debt of DISCOMs, by States under the UDAY scheme. The extended timeline of one year upto 31st March, 2017 will allow States which could not participate in UDAY earlier to join in. <br/><br/>The Cabinet also gave its nod for special package for employment generation and promotion of exports in Textile and Apparel sector. It is expected to generate one crore jobs over next three years. <br/><br/>It will also attract investment of 74 thousand crore rupees over next three years and lead to cumulative increase of 30 billion dollars in exports. The scheme will help in women empowerment as they constitutes 70 per cent of workforce in garment sector.