NEW DELHI: With Dr J S Sarma retiring in May this year, the process has begun to find a successor to the job of chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
A search-cum-selection committee set up for the purpose today held its first meeting to discuss its modalities.
The meet was held under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterjee, his advisor on Infrastructure Sam Pitroda, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar and Personnel Ministry Secretary P K Mishra.
Following the Supreme Court order canceling 122 telecom licences issued in January 2008 under the 2G scheme, Trai under Sarma recently announced a consultation paper for e-auctions for 2G spectrum according to the Court order.
Sarma took over as Trai chairman in May 2009 after retirement of Nripendra Mishra from the post in March that year. Prior to joining Trai, Sarma was member of Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (Tdsat) and also served as Secretary at Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in 2005-2006.
Sarma has been involved in various important regulations which include ‘Spectrum Management and Licencing Framework‘, Mobile Number Portability, Regulation to stop pesky calls and SMS, Telecom Consumer Protection Regulations 2012, Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations 2012 and Digitisation of cable network among others.
