On June 19, IAS Officer Amit Agrawal assumed charge as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Agarwal earlier held the position of Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). He also worked as the Additional Secretary and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Historical leadership of UIDAI: UIDAI’s first Director General was Ram Sewak Sharma, who also served as the Chairperson of the Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (Co-WIN) and is the former CEO of the National Health Authority. Under his leadership, the Co-WIN database experienced an alleged leak this month - it is discussed in detail here. When UIDAI was first established, Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, was appointed to lead the project. He was appointed to the newly created position of Chairman of the UIDAI. Nilekani held this position until March 2014. It is important to point out here that in the government’s rebuttal to the Co-WIN data leak, it has said repeatedly that the leaked Aadhaar data was breached pre-2014, which lines up with both Sharma and Nilekani’s leadership at UIDAI. From 2014 to 2015, Indian Administrative Services officer Vijay S Madan held the position of both the Chairman and Director General of UIDAI. The first CEO of UIDAI was appointed in 2016, and the post was held by Dr A B Pandey - who stayed on as the CEO till 2019. Before being appointed as CEO, Pandey had been working with UIDAI as Deputy Director General since 2015. …
