Ajay Kumar is among India’s foremost bureaucrats and technology policymakers, shaping the country’s digital transformation through administrative and technological leadership. Over nearly four decades, he has played a pivotal role in building key digital public infrastructure, including Aadhaar, UPI, MyGov, and Jeevan Pramaan.
As Director General of NIC and Additional Secretary in MeitY, he drove Digital India programmes focused on systems at scale and strategic capability. He later served as Defence Production Secretary (2017) and Defence Secretary (2019), steering defence innovation. Now Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission, he is engaging with the challenges AI poses for public administration.