Ajay Kumar

Born on October 2, 1962, Dr Ajay Kumar served as Defence Secretary with the overall responsibility of defence of India during the crucial period between August 2019 and October 2022. He is the longest serving Secretary in Ministry of Defence, where he also served as Secretary in Department of Defence Production. 

As Defence Secretary of India, he was the key architect for several major transformations under Prime Minister Modi. These included restructuring of higher defence management in the country and formation of the Chief of Defence Staff in Indian Armed Forces; the launch of Agniveer scheme - a historic reform in recruitment, training and retention of personnel in the Armed Forces. He was among the key decision-makers who successfully managed the tense stand-off  on Indo-China Line of Actual control resulted  after the Galwan incident of 2020.

Dr Kumar is credited to have transformed the defence industry ecosystem under the AtmaNirbhar Bharat: programme of Prime Minister Modi. He also conceptualised and coordinated the historic corporatization of 200 year old, 80,000 employee strong Ordnance Factories Board.  He also originated: Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) Programme - a start-up ecosystem which today powers new technologies in Defence, Space, Drones, Artificial Intelligence etc.

Prior to joining Ministry of Defence, Dr. Kumar served in different capacities in Electronics and Information Technology sector including holding key positions as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India; Director General, National Informatics Centre; Principal Secretary in Government of Kerala and Managing Director of KELTRON   He is credited to have been part of the team of leaders which implemented key initiatives of Digital India under Prime Minister Modi in 2014 including UPI world’s largest digital payment system; Aadhaar world’s largest biometric digital identity system; myGov, Government-e Marketplace; Jeevan Pramaan and several others. 

Dr. Kumar joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1985 and in a career spanning over 37 years served inkey policy making positions in Government of India and State Government of Kerala besides having served on the Board of Directors of several Public Sector organizations. Dr Kumar is PhD in Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.  He also has M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, He did his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India. 

He was conferred Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Kanpur; an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy by Amity University, India and Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers for outstanding contributions to engineering and dynamic leadership in engineering domain. He is recipient of several awards including citation by the Prime Minister of India, “Champion of Change” Award, “Electronics Leader of the Year 2013” Award, “Vikram Sarabhai Award”, among others. 

Dr, Kumar is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIT Kanpur, Senior Fellow  at Carnegie India and Adviser to Government of Kerala. He is also an Advisor to the Unisted States India Strategic Partnership Forum. He is a regular speaker at IITs/IIMs/Universities and leading Think-tanks in India and abroad. He also advises start-ups and industry in fields of technology and defence. 

Qualifications.

PhD in Business Administration from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA in 2007.  Dissertation– Agglomeration, Economic Interdependence and Information Technology: A Macroeconomic Perspective. 

M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, USA in 2007. . Dissertation – A Multi-sector Trade Model with Integrated Manufacturing Sector.

B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in 1984. 

Schooling: St. Aloysius School, Kanpur and BNSD Inter College Kanpur, India