India's telecommunications minister, Andimuthu Raja, has resigned amid allegations that his handling of the sale of telecom licenses resulted in billions of dollars in losses.
Raja, who belongs to a southern Indian political party that is a key ally of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party, was under pressure to resign after it became known that the sale of the second generation 2G airwaves spectrum had resulted in Rs1,760 billion loss to the treasury.
Raja told reporters Monday: "In order to avoid embarrassment to the government and maintainpeace and harmony in parliament, my leader has advised me to resign."