Ram Sewak Sharma

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Ram Sewak Sharma
CEO, National Health Authority
Assumed office
01 February 2021
Preceded byIndu Bhushan
Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
In office
20 August 2015 – 30 September 2020
Preceded byRahul Khullar
Succeeded byPD Vaghela
Director General, Unique Identification Authority of India
In office
31 July 2009 – 31 March 2013
Succeeded byVijay Madan
Personal details
Born(1955-10-01)1 October 1955
NationalityIndian
Occupationcivil servant

Ram Sewak Sharma is a former Indian bureaucrat. He was the first Director General of the Unique Identification Authority of India and was subsequently appointed as the Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) . After his retirement, he was appointed as the CEO of the National Health Authority of India which administers the Ayushman Bharat Yojana health protection scheme.[1]

Early life and education[]

Born in a small village of Uttar Pradesh, he completed his early education from schools near his village. He joined University of Allahabad from where he earned his Bachelor of Science (BSc). He completed his masters in Mathematics from IIT, Kanpur, in 1978.[2] While on leave from the Government of India, he earned a Masters in Computer Science from University of California, Riverside in 2002[3] and subsequently a PhD from IIT, Delhi.[4]

Career[]

Ram Sewak Sharma joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1978.He belongs to the Jharkhand cadre.[5] In 1986, he wrote a program in DBASE, a programming language that would keep a record of all stolen firearms in the crime-prone district. As soon as a firearm would be found, the programme would run a search query among thousands of age-old records. This software enabled the solving of 22 cases in just 30 days.[6]

He held responsibilities in his home cadre of Jharkhand as well as in ministries of the Central government, including, as Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology and Chief Secretary of Jharkhand .[5]

UIDAI[]

As the first Director General of the Unique Identification Authority of India, he helped create the 12-digit identity number, called Aadhaar, which is available to all eligible residents in India. He has authored a book titled The Making of Aadhaar: World's Largest Identity Platform (ISBN 9390356121) describing this project.[7]

TRAI[]

He was appointed the Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from August 2015 for a period of three years. At the end of this tenure, he was given a further extension of two years.[8] As Chairman of TRAI, he steered the adoption of net neutrality regulations in India. He has taken measures to enable consumer choice in determining market outcomes, e.g. a new framework for broadcasting and cable services,[9] regulations for mobile number portability,[10] and the use of crowd-sourced information or field measurements to inform customers[11] As the TRAI chairman, his goal to gradually reduce Interconnect Usage Charges earned him acclaim from some and criticism from others. Critics allege that the decision is biased towards Jio while those defending TRAI claim that reducing these charges was necessary for the continuous growth of the sector.[12]

NHA[]

As CEO, NHA, he has the responsibility of spearheading the national effort of providing Covid19 vaccines to the Indian population.[13]

Controversies[]

In 2018, Sharma dismissed concerns regarding privacy and potential misuse of India's national biometric ID, and disclosed his Aadhar number on twitter, challenging users to “do any harm to me.” and stating that the purpose of the challenge was "... to debunk the theory that Aadhaar compromises the privacy of the person.”[14][15] Following this, individual researchers were able to locate his personal address, the number of the mobile phone he used as well as an alternate phone number that he used, his Whatsapp profile picture, his voter identification card and his tax identification card (PAN card). Sharma dismissed these disclosures on Twitter, stating that the information could not be used to harm him.[14][16] The information was used to make a symbolic deposit of ₹1 in one of his bank accounts, to demonstrate the potential for misuse.[17] The UIDAI made a statement indicating that this personal information concerning Mr. Sharma was already in the public domain.[18] In December 2020, Sharma's Aadhar number was used to fraudulently register him for an agricultural benefit scheme, the PM Kisan Yojana, as a result of which benefits that he was not eligible for were deposited into his account. Sharma has blamed the state government for failing to conduct adequate verification.[19]

Awards[]

  • - 2008

References[]

  1. ^ "RS Sharma to take over as CEO, National Health Authority". eHealth. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  2. ^ Jain, Akshai (1 January 2010). "Ram Sewak Sharma | A different drummer". Mint. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  3. ^ "Ram Sewak Sharma | University of California, Riverside - Academia.edu". ucriverside.academia.edu. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  4. ^ Pandey, Navadha. "R.S. Sharma, outspoken Trai chairman with a flair for technology, retires today". Mint. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Complete Biodata". Ministry of Personnel. Government of India. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  6. ^ Julka, Harsimran (20 July 2010). "UID will give mobile identity to people". The Economic Times. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  7. ^ "'Making of Aadhaar' — new book presents candid, first-hand account of how the ID was created". The Print. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  8. ^ "R S Sharma re-appointed TRAI chairperson till 2020". Business Line. Hindu. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  9. ^ "Regulation and Amendment". Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  10. ^ "Mobile Number Portability". Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  11. ^ "TRAI Analytics". analytics.trai.gov.in. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  12. ^ Block, Daniel. "How Reliance Jio is monopolising the telecom sector". The Caravan. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  13. ^ "RS Sharma: Vaccinating India". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  14. ^ a b "TRAI chief's Aadhar dare backfires, personal details put online". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 29 July 2018. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 14 December 2020.CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. ^ "TRAI chief's Aadhaar challenge decoded: Why R S Sharma gave out his Aadhaar number". The Financial Express. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Personal details of TRAI chief RS Sharma 'leaked' after open challenge on Twitter- Technology News, Firstpost". Tech2. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  17. ^ Jul 30, Rachel Chitra / TNN / Updated; 2018; Ist, 17:02. "Hackers deposit Re 1 in Trai chief's account | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 December 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Trai chief's personal details not taken from Aadhaar database: UIDAI". Hindustan Times. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  19. ^ DelhiDecember 14, Yasmin Ahmed New; December 14, 2020UPDATED; Ist, 2020 17:47. "Former UIDAI chief RS Sharma suffers Aadhaar fraud, Rs 6000 PM Kisan fund deposited in his account". India Today. Retrieved 14 December 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External Links[]

Complete Biodata

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