# R. S. Sharma

### Context

Sharma served as Director General and Mission Director of the [Unique Identification Authority of India](/organizations/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](https://uidai.gov.in/hi/officers-served-in-past).)

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](https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/ifds/Pages/SHARMARamSewak%2CTRAI%2CIndia.aspx).)

### 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](https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Conferences/WTDC/WTDC21/R2A/Pages/BiographiesR.S.Sharma.aspx).)

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](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/rs-sharma-aadhaar-number-uidai-twitter-trai-5281895/).)

### 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. (Source: [International Telecommunication Union — accessed 2026-10-14](https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Conferences/WTDC/WTDC21/R2A/Pages/BiographiesR.S.Sharma.aspx).)

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. (Source: [The Indian Express — 2018-07-29](https://indianexpress.com/article/india/rs-sharma-aadhaar-number-uidai-twitter-trai-5281895/).)

## Dated facts

_No published facts on this page yet._

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/r-s-sharma