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 | 02/10/1962 Uttar Pradesh |
| Alma mater | IIT Kanpur (B.Tech) University of Minnesota (MS, PhD) |
| Occupation | IAS officer |
| Profession | Civil servant |
Ajay Kumar is an Indian civil servant who currently serves as the Chairperson of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). A 1985-batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, he earlier served as the 38th Defence Secretary of India. (2019–2022), Defence Production Secretary (2017–2019), and held senior roles in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, where he contributed to the Digital India programme including Unified Payments Interface, Aadhaar, MyGov.in, Government e Marketplace and Jeevan Pramaan. He is an alumnus of the IIT Kanpur and the University of Minnesota.
Kumar has been associated with significant national reforms, including defence production indigenization, the establishment of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), corporatization of the Ordnance Factories Board, and the launch of the Agniveer recruitment scheme. Beyond government service, he has engaged with academia, policy think-tanks, and startup ecosystems.