Rahul Khullar to lead TRAI as Chairman!

Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar has been appointed the new chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India. There was a week long speculation as to who the government may be appointing and speculation came to an end with this move.

 

Khullar has been given a three year tenure. If not for this appointment he would have retired as Commerce Secretary next year. Khullar takes on his new post starting tomorrow. He is taking over this post at a very crucial time that this sector is facing.

 

Khullar will have to tackle the contentious modalities and rules for the refarming of 900MHz spectrum. He would also have to deal with operators’ contention that  consumer tariffs would rise substantially due to high spectrum prices.

 

He has completed a five year term in the Prime Ministers Office between 1985-1990 and except for a brief stint in the disinvestment ministry Khullar was virtually in Udyog Bhavan playing various key roles in the ministry. Born in 1953, he knows five languages namely Hindi, English, Punjabi and Malayalam.

 

Khullar’s  batchmates include Department of Telecommunications Secretary Rentala Chandrashekhar whose department  will have a final say on the auction recommendations made by the regulator before they go to a ministerial group.