Who Is Ajay Kumar, The Bureaucrat Behind India's e-Governance Push And Now UPSC Head?

New Delhi: Former Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar took charge as the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) here on Thursday. Kumar, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1985 batch of Kerala cadre, was administered the oath of office and secrecy as UPSC Chairman by Lieutenant General (Retd) Raj Shukla, the senior-most member of the Commission.

"During his illustrious career spanning over 35 years, he has held key positions in both the Kerala government and the Central government. In Kerala, some of his prominent roles included Managing Director of the Electronics and Information Technology Department and Principal Secretary of the Information Technology Department."

"At the Centre, he held several significant portfolios, including Director of Science & Technology, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Director General of the National Informatics Centre, and Additional Secretary."

"At the Centre, he held several significant portfolios, including Director of Science & Technology, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Director General of the National Informatics Centre, and Additional Secretary."

In his last assignment, he served as Secretary of the Defence Ministry. Kumar has been instrumental in introducing several e-Governance initiatives such as “Jeevan Pramaan" (digital life certificates for pensioners), myGov, Pragati (Prime Minister's video conference), Bio-metric Attendance System, OPD Registration System in AIIMS, "Cloud First" policy for the government for using Cloud Service Providers.

He has several publications to his credit in various national and international journals. He is also a recipient of several awards, like the "Silver Elephant" medallion by the National Scouts and Guides in 1994, "Electronics Leader of the Year for the year 2012 for promotion of the electronics industry in the country."

Kumar pursued a BTech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has done his MS in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, USA and PhD in Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA. He was also conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by Amity University in 2019.