Mr. Nripendra Misra (IAS, retired) former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has had a distinguished career in the civil services, holding key positions like Secretary to the Government of India responsible for Departments of Telecommunications, Fertilizers & Agricultural inputs and Principal Secretary to the Chief minister in UP for two successive governments. He also served as the chairman of two public sector undertakings – MTC and STC– and had been a consultant to the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Mr Misra has a MPA from John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard in addition to two Masters degrees from Allahabad University and has several publications to his record. He is currently associated with Public Interest Foundation, an NGO focusing on systemic reforms in governance.

The speaker has his focus on the regulatory regime in India. The highlighted issues include: the  transition of the telecom sector in India, starting from a monopoly by the state in the 90’s to a competitive sector with private players; the genesis of regulatory authority in telecom sector in India from a historical perspective; the challenges faced in dismantling the monopoly of the state for a level playing field; how some key decisions taken by the telecom regulatory authority affected the functioning of telecom industry in a positive way;  the non-market objectives that should be taken into consideration by the regulatory authority when framing the rules?; the kind of autonomy that should be granted to the regulatory authorities by the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary bodies; the performance of regulatory authorities in India and best practices related to  regulatory regimes in other countries; and, how to make the regulatory authorities more accountable?