Centre appoints Senior IAS PD Vaghela as new Chairman of TRAI

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on September 28, 2020, appointed senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer PD Vaghela as the new Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Vaghela will be succeeding RS Sharma who was at the helm of the sector regulator for a period of five years. According to the statement by the Department of personnel and training (DoPT), PD Vaghela will take charge from October 1, 2020, for three years or until he attains the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever comes first.

About PD Vaghela: TRAI’s new Chairman

•  PD Vaghela is a 1986-batch officer of the Gujarat cadre.

•  Vaghela is currently in the Pharmaceuticals department (DoP) which is under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. He was there as a Secretary for a year till September 30, 2020.

•  Prior to the Department of Pharmaceuticals, he was the commissioner of Commercial Tax in Gujarat.

•  PD Vaghela is counted among the key officers who played a significant role in the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), in 2017.

Role of TRAI Chairman:

TRAI Chairman’s role is extremely significant given the importance of the sector in the Indian economy.

Even though, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) takes the final call on TRAI proposals, the recommendations made by the latter for the basis of DoT’s final policy framework, thus carry huge weight which is difficult to ignore.

Extended tenure of TRAI’s previous Chairman:

RS Sharma, the previous Chairman of TRAI was given a rare two-year extension till September 30, 2020. He got an extension as the day before his retirement on August 10, 2018.

Typically, the Chairman of TRAI is appointed for a period of 3 years but Sharma was appointed in July 2015, which makes him the chair of the Department for full 5 years.

He has seen massive disruption in the telecom sector due to the entry of Reliance Jio in September 2016 that offered almost free data and voice services, which lead to a sharp fall in the revenues of other companies.