Rajesh Aggarwal (IAS) Age, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Profession	Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer
Physical Stats
Height (approx.)	5' 9" (175 cm)
Weight (approx.)	60 Kg (132 lbs)
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Politics
Batch	1989
Administrative Journey	• 21 August 1989 – 10 August 1991: Assistant Collector (Junior Scale) in Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn / Sub Divisional Admn, Thane (AIS) • 23 August 1991 – 29 January 1993: Assistant Collector (Junior Scale) in Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn / Sub Divisional Admn, Ratnagiri (AIS) • 30 January 1993 – 3 July 1996: Chief Executive Officer (Under Secretary) in Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn / Development Admn, Jalgaon (AIS) • 3 July 1996 – 22 April 1998: District Collector (Deputy Secretary) in Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn / District Admn, Akola (AIS) • 30 April 1998 – 12 February 2002: Deputy Commissioner (Deputy Secretary) in Land Revenue Mgmt & District Admn / Development Admn, Maharashtra Sadan, New Delhi (AIS) • 15 February 2002 – 9 June 2003: Private Secretary (Deputy Secretary Equivalent) in Rural Development / Minister’s Office, Centre • 9 June 2003 – 14 October 2003: On Compulsory Wait (Deputy Secretary Equivalent) in Rural Development, Centre • 14 October 2003 – 14 February 2007: Director in Law and Justice / Elections, Election Commission of India, Centre • 6 March 2007 – 31 May 2007: On Compulsory Wait (Director) in Cadre (AIS) • 2 June 2007 – 12 June 2009: Additional CEO (Director) in Communications & Information Technology / Information Technology, National Internet Exchange of India (Deputation under Rule 6(2)(ii)) • 13 June 2009 – 3 July 2009: On Compulsory Wait (Joint Secretary) in Cadre (AIS) • 4 July 2009 – 28 September 2010: Secretary (Joint Secretary) in Agriculture & Cooperation / Animal Husbandry, Dairy Dev & Fisheries (AIS) • 28 September 2010 – 3 May 2011: Secretary (Joint Secretary) in Finance / Finance Department, Mumbai City (AIS) • 3 May 2011 – 15 May 2011: On Compulsory Wait (Joint Secretary) in Cadre (AIS) • 16 May 2011 – 19 January 2015: Secretary (Joint Secretary) in Information & Broadcasting / Information Technology Deptt, Mumbai City (AIS) • 20 January 2015 – 6 June 2016: Joint Secretary in Finance / Financial Services, Centre • 6 June 2016 – 9 July 2018: Joint Secretary in Social Justice & Empowerment / Tribal Welfare, Tribal Affairs, Centre • 10 July 2018 – 17 September 2018: Director General (Joint Secretary Equivalent) in Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Centre • 17 September 2018 – 18 December 2019: Director General (Additional Secretary Equivalent) in Directorate General of Training, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Centre • 18 December 2019 – 23 September 2021: Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser in Petroleum & Natural Gas / Petroleum & Natural Gas, Centre • 23 September 2021 – 15 September 2022: Secretary in Personnel & General Administration / Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Centre • 17 September 2022 – 28 October 2025: Secretary in Social Justice & Empowerment / Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Centre
Papers Published	• 2014 – Eliminated Transactions • 2014 – eSolutions for Tackling Demand-Supply Gap • 2014 – Merging UID and NPR • 2014 – Escaping the Dementors • 2016 – LessCash Economy: Opportunities and Challenges • 2016 – eGov Primer • 2016 – Digital Locker: Unlocking its Potential • 2016 – JAM
Awards, Honours, Achievements	• 2013 – UID Innovations Award by the Prime Minister of India • 2013 – CIO Excellence Award (Editor’s Choice) by Dataquest • 2014 – Premier 100 CIO Award by Computerworld USA • eGovernance Award by CNBC • Honored by Chief Minister’s Office • Honored by Express Group, and SKOCH Group
Personal Life
Date of Birth	12 November 1966 (Saturday)
Age (as of 2025)	59 Years
Birthplace	Jalandhar, Punjab, India
Zodiac sign	Scorpio
Hometown	Jalandhar, Punjab
Nationality	Indian
School	DAV College, Jalandhar (1981-1983)
College/University	Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi
Educational Qualification	Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Computer Science and Engineering (1983-1987)
Hobbies	• Reading about technology • Travelling
Social Media	LinkedIn

Some Lesser Known Facts About Rajesh Aggarwal

• Rajesh Aggarwal completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi during 1983–1987. His B.Tech thesis focused on Natural Language Understanding, and his main academic interests were Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence.

• He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1989. Between 1991 and 1998, during his field postings, he developed several small IT projects to improve transparency and delivery of government services.
  

  Rajesh Aggarwal, when he joined IAS

• From 2003 to 2007, he worked in the Election Commission of India, New Delhi.

• During this period, he developed fuzzy matching techniques to remove duplicate voter entries and handled large databases of around 700 million voters and 500 million photographs in more than a dozen Indian languages.

• He executed the Photo Rolls project, enabling voters’ photographs to appear on electoral rolls. He also convinced the Delimitation Commission to use GIS maps from the Census of India to draw new Assembly and Parliament boundaries.

• Between 2007 and 2009, he managed the Internet Exchange of India. During this tenure, domestic internet traffic within the country increased substantially, and .IN domain registrations grew rapidly.

• He also introduced several forward-looking internet policies. In 2009, while holding additional charge of the Social Justice Department, he initiated direct transfer of scholarship money into students’ bank accounts.

• As Secretary, Accounts and Treasuries, he introduced electronic systems to make all government receipts and payments cheque-less.

• From June 2011 to January 2015, he served as Principal Secretary (IT) for the Government of Maharashtra. He focused on strengthening IT fundamentals through his philosophy of “eGov 0.0,” emphasizing governance and technology basics instead of hype.
  

  Rajesh Aggarwal during an official program

• As Maharashtra’s Chief Information Officer, he helped the state reach the top position in India’s e-Governance ecosystem. Maharashtra became number one in Aadhaar enrollment, Common Service Centres, and electronic payments and receipts.

• The state also advanced in eTendering, eOffice, cloud usage, and IPv6 adoption. Under his leadership, Maharashtra’s e-Governance initiatives won more than 300 national and international awards.

• As Adjudicating Officer under the IT Act, he wrote more than seventy judgments that received wide media coverage.

• In 2014, he was named among the Global 100 CIOs by Computerworld USA. In January 2015, he joined the Ministry of Finance as Joint Secretary (Financial Services) and Mission Director of the Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana.

• Later, he served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, where his field visits to remote regions provided insights into how technology can empower or limit communities.

• He then served as Additional Secretary and Director General Training in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, also holding charge of DG (NIESBUD).

• From January 2020 to September 2021, he worked as Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor for the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and also advised the Ministries of Corporate Affairs and Chemicals and Fertilizers.

• From September 2021 to September 2022, he served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

• Since September 2022, he has been serving as Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
  

  Rajesh Aggarwal during an event

• In November 2025, rumours flew that he would be the next chief secretary of Maharashtra.

• He continues to focus on accessibility initiatives, ensuring that government websites, public buildings, and polling stations are friendly for persons with disabilities.

• He has promoted Braille-enabled electronic voting machines and ramps for wheelchair access at polling booths. He also works on Indian language computing, having handled voter data in fifteen Indian languages and developed fuzzy matching algorithms for Indian scripts.

• He remains interested in natural language understanding, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics. He runs two hobby websites—www.ilovemaths.com and www.eGovernance.guru—to share knowledge on mathematics and e-governance practices.