Ajay Kumar (civil servant)
Dr. Ajay Kumar is the former Defence Secretary of India and currently an advisor for electronics development projects. He is an Indian Administrative Service officer from the 1985 batch. Dr. Ajay Kumar is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the University of Minnesota.
Ajay Kumar | |
|---|---|
Kumar in 2023 | |
| 39th Defence Secretary of India | |
| In office 23 August 2019 – 31 October 2022 | |
| Appointed by | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet |
| Minister | Rajnath Singh |
| Preceded by | Sanjay Mitra |
| Succeeded by | Giridhar Aramane |
| 39th Defence Production Secretary of India | |
| In office 1 December 2017 – 23 August 2019 | |
| Appointed by | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet |
| Minister | Nirmala Sitharaman |
| Preceded by | Ashok Kumar |
| Succeeded by | Subhash Chandra, IAS (Karnataka, 1986) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ajay Kumar 2 October 1962 Uttar Pradesh |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater | IIT Kanpur (B.Tech) University of Minnesota (MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | IAS officer |
| Profession | Civil servant |
Dr. Kumar currently holds the position of Distinguished Visiting Professor in Department of Management Sciences and the Department of Economic Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
Dr. Kumar's has served in the technology and policy domains, particularly in areas like electronics manufacturing, mobile production and defence production. Notably, he has played a leadership role in shaping and implementing key decisions for the Government of India's Digital India initiative as Additional secretary to the Government of India.
His career also includes involvement in expanding defense exports and introducing modern warfare capabilities. Dr. Ajay Kumar is the visionary behind the iDEX program, which received the Prime Minister Award for Public Policy in the Innovation Category in 2021. He has been associated in Project 75I, a program focused on developing next-generation submarines and fighters, and laying the groundwork for a thriving marine and aerospace industrial ecosystem in India.
He is an active writer for Indian national dailies and maintains a monthly column in Business Standard titled "Off the Grid."