IT Secretary R S Sharma appointed as TRAI chairman

The IT Secretary Ram Sevak Sharma was appointed as the chairman of telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 27 July 2015.
He will take place of Rahul Khullar who had retired in May 2015. However, Sharma is also set to retire in September 2015 as secretary for department of electronics and information technology.
Sharma’s appointment assumes importance in the wake of debate over net neutrality in recent time. He seems to be the reasonable choice because of his familiarity with the telecom and information technology sector.

About Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

It was established in 1997 by an Act of Parliament to regulate telecom services in India, which was introduced in wake of entry of private sector in telecom industries. TRAI is an independent regulator that regulates telecommunication services; it also fixes or revises the tariffs for telecom services in India.
Its main purpose is to deliver a fair and transparent environment for fair competition in telecom market. It was constituted with the motive to create and nurture conditions for growth of telecommunication sector in India and to enable the country to have a leading role in the emerging global information society.

About Ram Sevak Sharma:

Mr. Sharma completed Masters Degree from IIT, Kanpur and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of California (USA) and is an IAS officer of 1978 batch, Jharkhand Cadre.
Mr. Sharma had closely worked as Director General and mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Aadhaar card project with Nandan Nilekani.
He has worked as Chief Secretary to the Jharkhand government and had also worked in the Department of Economic Affairs and has dealt with bilateral and multilateral development agencies like World Bank and Asian Development Bank. He has also successfully led the Financing of Infrastructure projects.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2015