TRAI chief Ram Sewak Sharma gets two-year extension

The Centre on Thursday reappointed Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma, who created controversy after making public his Aadhaar number with the dare to hackers to invade it, for another two-year.

Sharma, who was appointed as the telecom watchdog chairman in July 2015 for a three-year period, was to retire on August 9. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the reappointment of Sharma for a further period 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.

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

Sharma, who earlier served as Director General of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), decision to disclose Aadhaar had caused a social media flutter as he was criticised by many for throwing such a challenge.

Some of the decisions by the Trai during his tenure 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.

Earlier this year, Trai's predatory pricing norms sparked-off a furore as old telecom operators and industry association criticised the new rules.