Ajay Kumar (civil servant)
Ajay Kumar | |
|---|---|
Kumar in 2023 | |
| Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission | |
| Assumed office 15 May 2025 | |
| Appointed by | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet |
| Preceded by | Preeti Sudan |
| 38th 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 | 2 October 1962 Uttar Pradesh |
| Alma mater | IIT Kanpur (B.Tech) University of Minnesota (MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | IAS officer |
| Profession | Civil servant |
Ajay Kumar (born 2 October 1962) is the current Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). A former IAS officer from the 1985 batch, he was the former Defence Secretary of India. Kumar is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and the University of Minnesota.
Kumar was the longest-serving secretary in the Ministry of defence, having also held the position of Secretary in the Department of Defence Production. Kumar held positions, including additional secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and director general of the National Informatics Centre. During his tenuere in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, he worked in the implementation of Digital India programme including Unified Payments Interface, Aadhaar, MyGov.in, Government e Marketplace and Jeevan Pramaan.