Trai chief Sharma to stay on for two more years

Trai chief Ram Sewak Sharma, whose tenure saw major decisions on issues like termination charges and predatory pricing, was on Thursday given two-year extension, a day before his term was to end, according to an official order.

As chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Sharma shaped rules barring internet service providers from having different prices for accessing different parts of the Web, in a setback to Facebook’s plan to roll out a pared-back free internet service.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved reappointment of Sharma as chairperson of the Trai for a further period beyond August 10, 2018 up to September 30, 2020, i.e. the date on which he attains the age of 65 years, the order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. He was in July 2015 named as the Trai chief for a three-year period.

Sharma, a 1982 batch (retired) IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, was recently in news as he had disclosed his Aadhaar number on the microblogging site Twitter and threw an open challenge to people to show how mere knowledge of the 12digit unique number could be used to harm him.

The move had caused a social media flutter as he was criticised by many for throwing such a challenge.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar, had thereafter asked people not to share their unique identification number publicly or pose such challenges to others. Some of the decisions by the Trai, ranging from slashing of call-connect charges to its stance on the provision of points of interconnect (sought by Reliance Jio at the start of its services), and predatory pricing rules have come under the industry's attack.