Ram Sewak Sharma

Ram Sewak Sharma (born 1955) is an Indian bureaucrat. He was the Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from 10 August 2015 to 30 September 2020. Prior to this assignment, he swore as the Secretary of Department of Electronics and Information Technology (under Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India).[1] He belongs to the 1978 batch of the Indian Administrative Service.

Ram Sewak Sharma
Born1955 (age 65–66)
NationalityIndian
Title

Early life

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.

Career

Ram Sewak Sharma joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1978.

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. Together, they impressed the state government, by solving 22 cases in just 30 days.[4] This was an early indicator of his preference for using computer in governance.

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.

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,[5] regulations for mobile number portability,[6] and the use of crowd-sourced information or field measurements to inform customers[7]

He has been alive to the emerging issues and opportunities. For example, he supported the adoption of Distributed Ledger Technology in fighting spam[8] and TRAI gave recommendations to the Government of India on Privacy, Security and Ownership of the Data in the Telecom Sector[9] and Spectrum, Roaming and QoS related requirements in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications[10]

As the TRAI chairman, his goal to gradually reduce Interconnect Usage Charges has earned him much 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.[11]

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.”[12][13] 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 identifcation card (PAN card). Sharma dismissed these disclosures on Twitter, stating that the information could not be used to harm him.[12][14] The information was used to make a symbolic deposit of ₹1 in one of his bank accounts, to demonstrate the potential for misuse.[15] The UIDAI made a statement indicating that this personal information concerning Mr. Sharma was already in the public domain.[16] 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.[17]

Awards
  • Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration - 2008

Positions
  • Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
  • Secretary, D/o Electronics and Information Technology,M/o Communications & Info Tech, Govt of India.
  • Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand
  • Director General, UIDAI (2009–2013)
  • Jharkhand’s Principal Secretary (Public Health and Engineering)
  • Secretary IT, Human Resource Development, Panchayati Raj, Personnel and Drinking Water & Sanitation.
  • Principal Secretary to the Governor from 1 January 2003 to 11 June 2003.[18]
  • Deputy Development Commissioner in Saharsa
  • District Collector in Begusarai, Purnea and Dhanbad
  • Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance
  • Nodal Officer for the IMF, MIGA and GEF.

References
  1. PRESMIN (8 May 2014). "Executive Record Sheet Generator- Indian Administrative Service". PRESMIN. Delhi. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  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. Julka, Harsimran (20 July 2010). "UID will give mobile identity to people". The Economic Times. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  5. "Regulation and Amendment". Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  6. "Mobile Number Portability". Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  7. "TRAI Analytics". analytics.trai.gov.in. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  8. "Regulation and Amendment". Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  9. "Privacy, Security and Ownership of the Data in the Telecom Sector" (PDF). TRAI. 13 March 2020.
  10. "Spectrum, Roaming and QoS related requirements in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications" (PDF). TRAI. 13 March 2020.
  11. Block, Daniel. "How Reliance Jio is monopolising the telecom sector". The Caravan. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  12. "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)
  13. "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.
  14. "Personal details of TRAI chief RS Sharma 'leaked' after open challenge on Twitter- Technology News, Firstpost". Tech2. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  15. 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)
  16. "Trai chief's personal details not taken from Aadhaar database: UIDAI". Hindustan Times. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  17. 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)
  18. http://www.iitkalumni.org/NewsDetail.asp?id=376
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