RS Sharma named new TRAI chairman

NEW DELHI: The Government of India has appointed IT Secretary Ram Sewak Sharma as the new Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

A government order said that the appointments committee of the Indian Cabinet approved R S Sharma’s appointment for a period of three years. Sharma replaces Rahul Khullar, who retired in May this year.

Sharma joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1978, and before becoming the IT secretary, he was Director General, UIDAI from 2009–2013.

While he worked for the UIDAI, Sharma played a key role in laying its infrastructure and launched the Aadhar project across the country. Since the UID project was technology-driven, Sharma is believed to play an important role in taking India’s e-Governance drive further.

Sharma holds a Masters degree in mathematics from IIT Kanpur and computer science from University of California.

A search committee, headed by cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, was in-charge of shortlisting and interviewing candidates for the Trai chairman. In all, around seven-eight candidates were interviewed apart from Sharma. They included Bimal Julka (I&B secretary), Rajeev Kher (commerce secretary), RK Mathur (defence secretary), Rakesh Singh (steel secretary) and former telecom secretary, MF Farooqui.

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