MAY: Former defence secretary Ajay Kumar on Thursday took the oath of office as chairman of the Union Public Service Commission.

The oath was administered by Lt.Gen Raj Shukla (Retd.), the senior-most Member of the Commission.

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Having pursued a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Dr. Ajay Kumar has done his M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, USA and Ph.D in Business Administration from Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA. He was also conferred an Hon. Doctor of Philosophy by Amity University in 2019.

He belongs to the 1985 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of Kerala Cadre. During his illustrious career of more than 35 years, he has served in key positions in the Government of Kerala as well as in the Centre. Some of his important assignments in the State were Managing Director, Electronics and Information Technology Department; Principal Secretary, Information Technology Department.

At the Centre, he held the significant portfolios of Director, Science & Technology; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; Director General, National Informatics Centre; Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology; Secretary, Defence Production. In his last assignment, he served as Secretary, Ministry of Defence.

Dr. Ajay 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, etc.