Indian government’s regulator for the telecom industry in India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) might get its next head from the private sector.
The idea is consistent with the government’s recent decisions to choose members of the private sector to lead important regulatory organisations.
It comes just a few days after TRAI recommended that private FM radio operators should be allowed to broadcast independent news and current affairs programmes.
According to media reports, the central government is considering a change in the TRAI Act, 1997, which would lay down specific requirements to enable senior corporate executives to become the chairperson of TRAI.
It would mean an amendment to Section 4 of the TRAI Act, 1997, under which the Centre is empowered to appoint the chairperson and members of the regulatory body who have “special knowledge of, and professional experience in, telecommunication, industry, finance, accountancy, law, management or consumer affairs”.
“There is a proposal that a person who has never worked in the government can be appointed as the chairperson of TRAI if they have at least 30 years of professional experience at a senior level, such as a board member or chief executive officer,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity since the talks are currently private.
According to the current rules, a TRAI member must have held the post of Secretary or Additional Secretary to the Government of India, or any equivalent post in the central or state government, for at least three years. But no rules are specified for the post of chairperson.
“While technically, the chairperson could have been appointed from the private sector, the government had so far stayed away from appointing such an individual due to obvious concerns of conflict of interest. But the changes being considered now signal the changing mindset of the Centre towards opening up key regulatory posts for individuals from the private sector,” said the official.
“Besides, the changes being mulled also signal that TRAI has evolved as a regulator over the years and could now do well under a person from the private sector,” said sources.
The current TRAI chairperson, P D Vaghela, is a Gujarat-cadre 1986-batch IAS officer, and was earlier Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals. His predecessor, R S Sharma, a Jharkhand-cadre 1978-batch IAS officer, was the IT Secretary from 2014 to 2015.