India's new Telecommunications Act contains one little-noticed (until now) provision could benefit the country's regulatory environment. It seems that the eligibility criteria for appointing the chairman and members of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have been relaxed.
In other words the Telecommunications Act 2023 has made it much easier now for senior government officials who are not IAS (Indian Administrative Services) officers to become the chairman or a member of TRAI.
The Indian Administrative Service is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India and thus a part of the permanent bureaucracy of the nation. Anil Kumar Lahoti, the current TRAI chairman, is apparently only the third non-IAS chairman of TRAI since its inception in 1997.
Easing the formerly stringent conditions should make it easier to attract top talent for the leadership vacancies, some of which (two full-time and two part-time posts) were apparently still vacant this week after an unspecified length of time.
India’s Economic Times news service explains that to become a member of TRAI, a person once needed to serve as additional secretary or any equivalent post for at least three years. However, that stipulation took many potential candidates close to retirement age. But now it has been removed.
Will this change be effective? We shall see. Given the amount of legislation relevant to the telecoms sector that has recently been passed, is pending, or may come soon, any move that improves the regulatory decision-making process is likely to be welcome.
