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R. S. Sharma

R. S. Sharma

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Evidence & methodology

How the record is sourced and how the score is derived.

The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.

By the · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

Expert analysis

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Context

Sharma served as Director General and Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India from 2009 to 2013, during the formative implementation period of Aadhaar. (Source: Unique Identification Authority of India — accessed 2026-10-14 (opens in a new tab).)

He later chaired the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India after serving in other senior government technology and administrative posts. (Source: International Telecommunication Union — accessed 2026-10-14 (opens in a new tab).)

Record

The ITU biography credits Sharma with working on the design and implementation of Aadhaar and with efforts to build services around authentication. (Source: International Telecommunication Union — accessed 2026-10-14 (opens in a new tab).)

In July 2018, Sharma publicly posted his Aadhaar number as a challenge; people then surfaced personal information about him from publicly accessible sources, while UIDAI said the Aadhaar database itself had not been breached. (Source: The Indian Express — 2018-07-29 (opens in a new tab).)

Consequences

His career placed him at the center of two major questions in Indian digital governance: how state-scale identity infrastructure is built and how privacy, security, and public trust are handled around that infrastructure.

The 2018 episode became a high-profile illustration of the difference between a breach of a protected database and the aggregation or exposure of information available through other channels.