RS Sharma, former director general, UIDAI (Aadhar) to speak at ICG on Oct 17

Goa Khabar: RS Sharma, former director general of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be speaking at the International Centre Goa on Saturday October 17^th at 6pm.

The talk titled “Building for a billion”, part of the ‘ICG Public Lectures’ series will see the former bureaucrat delve on the ideas, architectural choices and lessons behind India’s digital transformation and what it takes to build digital infrastructure that can serve a billion-plus people. The talk is open and free to the public.

Sharma (IAS retired), who will discuss India’s experience with Aadhaar, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN), Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) has held some very important positions in his career.

Sharma was the first Director General of UIDAI (2009-13), now the world’s largest biometric identity system. He was subsequently the chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) (2015-20), the chief executive officer of the National Health Authority of India (NHAI) (2021-23) and in 2021, he was given the responsibility of developing and executing the COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN). He is presently a distinguished visiting professor at IIT-Kanpur.

Sharma is also the author of “The Making of Aadhaar: World’s Largest Identity Platform (Rupa, 2025)” and a regular contributor to policy discourse on technology, governance, and public health.

Those desirous of attending Sharma’s talk must RSVP ICG on mobile: 92844 75746. Refreshments will be served at 530pm.