Ashok Chawla Committee on Natural Resource Allocation

The Union cabinet secretariat on 8 February 2011 set up a high powered committee headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla to suggest a roadmap for efficient and transparent distribution of scarce natural resources such as telecom spectrum. The committee includes key secretaries as members along with representatives from industry chambers. The committee is expected to make generic recommendations on the overall mechanism of allocating resources and take a sectoral view. Also it is required to review the pricing and policy issues to find models that do not compromise on public welfare for profit maximisation. The committee has roped in the Centre for Policy Research to help it formulate an action plan.

In the process of suggesting mechanism for resource allocation, the panel is expected to study auction mechanism for spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile telephony and broadband services. The government had raised large sum of money by auctioning spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile telephony and broadband services in 2010.