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Rahul Khullar set to take over as Trai chairman
MUMBAI: Commerce secretary Rahul Khullar is replacing J S Sarma as the new Trai chairman for a three-year term.
The Prime Minister‘s office seems to have cleared the appointment of Khullar, a 1975 batch IAS officer of Delhi cadre.The tenure of Khullar, who was due to retire in April next year, will be till May 2015.
Sarma retires after having passed recommendations on spectrum allocation that won the opposition of the telecom operators with the base price being increased 13-fold.
Sarma also issued the tariff and interconnect order for digital addressable cable. Television news broadcasters have particularly opposed the legitimisation of carriage fees while a section of the multi-system operators (MSOs) have found certain clauses in the order not favourable for them. Local cable operators are also demanding more revenue share from the MSOs.
Khullar, an economist, will have to carefully balance these burning issues. The telecom operators have been lobbying for a change in regime as Sarma has been firm on the formula Trai has recommended for the auction of 2G airwaves.
The television industry will anxiously wait to see if the new chairman will defer the digitisation deadline of 30 June for the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Khullar had worked closely with then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh during 1991-1993 as his private secretary.
As commerce secretary, Khullar worked for trade normalisation between India and Pakistan. He had been successful in implementing measures that helped exports cross the $300-billion mark in 2011-12. He has also negotiated India‘s stance at WTO and various other multilateral pacts.
It is understood that former DIPP Secretary R P Singh, Defence Production Secretary Shekhar Agarwal, Fertiliser Secretary Ajay Bhattacharya, former Department of Telecom member (Technology) Chandra Prakash, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Subodh Kumar, former Secretary (Defence Finance) Indu Liberhan and Vijayalakshmi K Gupta were also in race for the post.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
