Composition of UIDAI Authority-te

Dr. Anand Deshpande

Dr. Anand Deshpande, is appointed as part-time member of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Dr. Anand Deshpande, Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Persistent Systems, is a B. Tech. (Hons.) in Computer Science and Engineering from the IIT, Kharagpur, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He has been the driving force in growing Persistent Systems from its inception in 1990, to the publicly-traded global Company it is today.

Dr. Saurabh Garg

Dr. Saurabh Garg is the Chief Executive Officer of Unique Identification Authority of India. Prior to this he was Principal Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers' Empowerment, Odisha where he worked on digitalizing agriculture and developing a direct income transfer scheme for farmers. He has worked in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, where he spearheaded the formation of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF); worked on improving the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies; preparing the framework for digital payments; revamping of the gold sector policies and led the negotiations for the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). He has been a member of Expert Committees / Working Groups set up by the Ministry of Finance, Niti Aayog, RBI and SEBI on 'Social Stock Exchanges'; 'Integration of Commodities Spot and Derivatives Markets'; 'Promotion of Digital Payments'; and 'Framework regarding Virtual / Crypto Currencies'. He has also worked in the areas of developing urban and industrial infrastructure. 

Dr. Garg is an IAS officer of Odisha Cadre and has over 30 years of experience at different levels of Government - District, State and the Central Government as well as in the Private Sector. He has also worked as Adviser with the World Bank in the office of the Executive Director for India in Washington DC. He has been the Chairman / Managing Director of Public Sector Companies. 

Dr. Garg holds a Ph.D. in International Economics and Development from the Johns Hopkins University, USA. He has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where he was awarded a Gold Medal, and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He was a Chevening Gurukul Fellow at the London School of Economics & Political Science, London. 

He has published articles and contributed to books in different areas including innovations in administration, infrastructure financing and financial inclusion.