TRAI chief Ram Sewak Sharma, who set off a controversy recently by disclosing his Aadhaar number on social media, has been reappointed Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for another two years.

The order came on Sharma on Thursday, which should have been his last day in office. When contacted by BusinessLine , Sharma maintained that he has not got the official order yet, but said, “I will join back office tomorrow.”

According to government sources, he is still fit and they want such leaders who can ‘handle’ global corporates and ‘teach them Indian regulations’.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Thursday approved the reappointment of Sharma, ‘for a further period beyond August 10, 2018 up to September 30, 2020, i.e. the date on which he attains the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier’.

The order issued by the Personnel Ministry said that ‘necessary communication in this regard has been sent to the Department of Telecommunication’.

Sharma was appointed TRAI chief for three years in July 2015. Before that he was Secretary to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

The 1982 batch (retired) IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre has also worked as Director-General and Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) or Aadhaar.

During his current tenure at TRAI, some of the key decisions and recommendations taken include slashing of call-connect charges, the position on the provision of points of interconnect, and predatory pricing rules.

Some of the decisions led to attacks by the industry. For instance, TRAI’s predatory pricing norms sparked a furore as old telecom operators and the industry association criticised the new rules.

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