PM clears Rahul Khullar's appointment as TRAI top boss

Moneycontrol Bureau

As the current chairman of India’s telecom watchdog JS Sarma retires today, Rahul Khullar has been given the post of chairman at the Telecom Regulatory Body of India (TRAI).
Commerce Secretary Khullar will serve a three-year term as TRAI chairman.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cleared Khullar’s appointment as TRAI’s top boss at a time when the industry is outraged against the regulator's recent proposal on auctioning airwaves in various parts of the frequency spectrum. Sarma’s sky-high base prices for telecom spectrum auction were another body blow to the telecom market.
These recommendations followed the Supreme Court's February 2 judgement where it cancelled 122 licenses belonging to nine telecom companies and told the government to redistribute them through a first come, first served allocation methodology.
Meanwhile TRAI is gearing up to stick to its 2G auction recommendations after coming under attack by nearly all operators.
Reports suggest the government has sought some clarifications on its recommendations for which a detailed response is being drafted. 
The telecom watchdog is set to send a reply in reference to the 2G recommendations later today.
Sources tell CNBC-TV18 that TRAI will clarify the tariff impact of the proposals but the core recommendations are most likely to remain untouched.