Dr. Rajendra Kumar is a senior officer in the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) and is currently working as the Principal Secretary/Industries Commissioner and Director of Industries and Commerce, and Director of the Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation Institute (EDII) in the Government of Tamil Nadu. Prior to this, he was the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT). As the CMD of ELCOT, he led the ICT infrastructure, e-governance, ICT procurement and IT industry promotion activities within the state.

   Earlier, he has worked as the Joint Secretary (e-Governance) in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India. He has led the entire Digital India, e-governance and technology development for Indian languages initiatives at the national level and has been responsible for the overall conceptualization and implementation of the flagship Digital India Programme and the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Government of India. He has conceptualized and implemented several major e-governance initiatives in the country. These include the new Digital Locker initiative aimed at providing a private space on a public cloud to all residents for storing and sharing government issued documents, the new Mobile Seva project aimed at bringing all government services on the mobile platform, E-Pramaan for electronic authentication of all users of e-governance services, and localization aimed at promoting the usage of Indian languages in e-governance and mobile based services. Prior to his stint in Government of India, he held senior positions in district administration and state government in Tamil Nadu in India.

Dr. Kumar has received a number of academic and professional awards at national and international levels during his career. He has received the UN Public Service Award in 2014 for the Mobile Seva project conceptualized and implemented by him.

Dr. Kumar holds a Ph.D. in international economic development and regional planning and an MCP from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, an M.Tech in Management and Systems from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, and a B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He has published a book and several articles in international journals.

He can be reached at: kumarr@alum.mit.edu.