Khullar takes over as new Trai chairman

Former commerce secretary, Rahul Khullar, took charge as the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday.

“It is an onerous responsibility. I hope I would be able to make a good job of it,” Khullar told reporters after assuming office. The decision on the successor to J S Sarma, who demitted the Trai chief’s office last weekend, was made yesterday.

Khullar is a 1975-batch Union Territory-cadre IAS officer, and has a doctorate in economics from America’s Boston University. He takes charge at a time when the whole telecom industry has been up in arms against the regulator’s proposals on the auction of spectrum.

The Trai chairman, typically, has a tenure of three years. Khullar, in the normal course of his career, would have retired as commerce secretary next year.

Trai, which was mandated by the court to come out with recommendations on the auction of spectrum, has created a stir by announcing a base price of Rs 3,622 crore per MHz -- 10 times more than what companies paid earlier. The regulator’s proposal has invited protest from the GSM players, while foreign telcos such as Uninor and MTS have said acceptance of the recommendations would leave them with no option but to quit the country.

On its part, the Trai -- even after the department of telecommunications sought certain clarifications -- has stuck to its earlier proposals of high reserve price and refarming of spectrum.

The Supreme Court had, on February 2 this year, cancelled 122 licences, prompting several new players such as S Tel and Etisalat DB to announce that they were shutting shop.

Khullar’s batchmates include R Chandrashekhar, who is secretary to the Department of Telecommunications that will have the final say on Trai’s auction recommendations before they go to a ministerial group.