Profile of Nasscom president-designate R Chandrashekhar

Former telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar, whose name was announced on Friday as sucessor to Som Mittal as president of Nasscom,  was the chairman, Telecom Commission and secretary, Department of Telecommunication till March 2013. During his career in Government, he held a wide variety of key assignments many of them relating to the ICT sector, both at the centre and the state government of Andhra Pradesh. (See: Former telecom secretary R Chandrashekhar to head Nasscom)

He has extensive experience of formulating and implementing policies, strategies and action plans to foster the growth of the IT industry covering the entire enabling eco-system including infrastructure, Human Resource Development, e-governance and establishing Public Private Partnerships. He has a deep understanding of the issues and problems related to ICT project implementation in Government.

As Secretary, DOT, Chandrashekhar was responsible for all aspects of policy formulation for the telecom sector and driving several key policies and strategies covering licensing, spectrum management, National Broadband Plan, Convergence, Manufacturing, Investment, security, R&D and the National Telecom Policy 2012. As secretary of the department of Information Technology, he steered the formulation of national policies for the IT sector, promoting electronic system design and manufacturing and R&D in the electronics and IT sector and designing the national e-governance plan.

Earlier, Chandrashekhar was instrumentain establishing the first department of information technology in the country in Andhra Pradesh and was secretary of the department from June 1997 to December 1999. The policies and strategies he formulated catapulted the state to the forefront of the country in the sector and became a role model for several states and countries.

Chandrashekhar obtained a M Sc in chemistry from the IIT, Bombay and a MS degree in computer science from the Pennsylvania State University.

He was conferred the Prime Minister's Award for excellence in public administration for the year 2007-08. He has been conferred several awards including Data Quest Path Breaker of the Year Award in 2005 and Distinguished Alumnus award of IIT-Mumbai in 2010.