New Delhi, May 15 (HS): Dr. Ajay Kumar, the former Secretary of the Ministry of Defence , was sworn in as the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Thursday, with Lieutenant General Raj Shukla (Retd.) administering the oath. A retired IAS officer from the 1985 Kerala cadre, Dr. Kumar succeeds Preeti Sudan, who completed her term as UPSC Chairman on April 29. Over his 35-year career, he has occupied important roles within both the Kerala state government and the central administration, including Director of Science and Technology, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and Secretary of Defence Production. He played a pivotal role in launching various e-governance initiatives such as the Digital Life Certificate for pensioners and the Cloud First policy. Dr. Kumar holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, an MS in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, and a PhD in Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management. Additionally, he received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from Amity University in 2019.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar