In a significant bureaucratic shakeup at the federal level, Bhuvnesh Kumar, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre who was appointed as Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in 1995, has been announced. Srivatsa Krishna has been transferred to lead the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and Kumar, who has been the CEO of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), takes over from him.

During his time at UIDAI and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Kumar was responsible for important tasks related to digital infrastructure; his appointment follows this. He was in charge of the Aadhaar ecosystem as CEO of UIDAI, particularly the authentication and electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) systems.

Cyber legislation, AI, and the Digital India program were all areas of focus for Kumar’s policy work while he was Joint Secretary in MeitY.

Kumar has extensive experience in top administrative roles across many industries in Uttar Pradesh. He was the principal secretary for livestock, dairy development, and fisheries, among other positions. Not only that, but he was also the Divisional Commissioner for Land Revenue and oversaw responsibilities including Finance, MSME, and Technical Education.

Kumar has administrative and law-and-order experience from his time as district magistrate in districts including Lucknow, Meerut, Aligarh, and Bareilly. At the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, Kumar earned a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and was a gold medallist.