New MeitY secretary to propel $1-trillion digital economy dream

The Union government placed its bets on senior IAS officers Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat to take on the role of secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), to focus on the 1,000-day goal set by the ministry to reach the $1 trillion digital economy mark.

Sharma will now be responsible for smooth implementation of the futuristic DIR-V initiative, which demands over $10 billion government support to all chip manufacturing and design facilities. Sharma had earlier served as the additional chief secretary-industries of the Kerala govt from May 2020 to April 2021.

From September 2019 to April 2021 Sharma was the Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd as well as CEO of Cochin Smart City Mission Ltd. Among immediate tasks as secretary MeitY, Sharma will be required to revive the much talked about 1,000-day plan.

The Union government has set a timeline to commercially launch the first indigenous chipsets by 2023-24 under the Digital India RISC-V programme. The DIR-V initiative is part of the government’s Rs 76,000-crore ($10 billion) plan to build a semiconductor ecosystem by incentivizing companies to set up chip manufacturing and design facilities in India.