Mr. Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Senior bureaucrat and Electronics and Information Technology Secretary has been appointed to the inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a significant recognition of India’s growing prowess in digital governance and new-age technologies.
Mr. Sharma, a 1990 batch Kerala cadre IAS officer from Rajasthan and a former Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, is among the panel of ten distinguished experts hailing from all regions of the globe on digital governance, which includes Nobel Prize-winning journalist Maria Reesa, and digital expert Vint Cerf.
The Panel also consists of five ex-officio members, and they include Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill, the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology.
The members have been appointed for a two-year term during the 2022–23 IGF cycles, the UN said.
Launched as part of the recommendations in Mr. Guterres’ Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the Leadership Panel has the mandate to deal with ‘strategic and urgent issues of the internet. It also provides strategic advice to the IGF, which strives to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals on policy issues relating to the internet in both the public and private sectors.
In his illustrious career, Mr. Sharma has also served a stint with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) as the national project director for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation. Earlier, he was CEO and Managing Director of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) and had additional charge as the Member Secretary and CEO of the National Industrial Corridor Development & Implementation Trust (NICDIT), the apex body formed to oversee the development of all industrial corridors across the country.
His other assignments included as Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Director of Kerala Tourism (2001 to 2004), Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (2009-2012), Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (2012-2015), Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (2019-2021), and Director in Bharat Petroleum, Keltron, Western India Plywoods, Apollo Tyres, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, and Indian Rare Earths Ltd.
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