- Sundararajan has spend over three decades with the Indian government
- She has held key positions in economic and development administration, investment promotion, and IT/telecom
- Post-retirement, Sundararajan plans to get back in touch with IT start-ups in Kerala
After an eventful career, Sundararajan retires on Wednesday after helming the central government’s department of telecommunications.
The 1982-batch Kerala Cadre IAS officer’s tryst with technology is not new. As the state’s founding IT Secretary, in 2002, she conceived and spearheaded the Akshaya project, an e-literacy project where over 1 million people were trained in basic digital skills on a campaign mode. Akshaya had received domestic and international acclaim as a digital transformational project.
Achievements so far
Sundararajan has spend over three decades with the government where she held key positions in economic and development administration, investment promotion and IT/telecom.
While she spearheaded the government’s Digital India programme during her time at the ministry of electronics and information technology, her most important role, however, has been as secretary of the department of telecommunications since June 2017.
During her tenure, the industry saw intense disruption, shrinking revenue streams, companies going bankrupt, and intense consolidation in the sector. At that same time, she also rolled out the National Digital Communications Policy in May last year which aims to attract $100 billion in investments into India by 2022 and create 4 million jobs apart from providing broadband to all. Her successor, 1986 batch IAS officer Anshu Prakash will now oversee the execution of the policy.
At her retirement, Sundararajan is confident that the worst is behind the sector and it will thrive because telecom is a key utility and in fact new players could also enter the market.
After a short break post-retirement, Sundararajan plans to get back in touch with IT start-ups in Kerala to begin the next innings of her career.
(News Courtesy: Mint)
