The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has appointed Aprajita Sharrma, an Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Financial Services (IP&TAFS) officer of the 1995 batch, as the Vice Chairperson of the ITU’s Council Standing Committee on Administration and Management. With this appointment, India has secured a leadership position in the standing committee of the United Nations(UN)agency.

“Aprajita Sharma will remain as Vice Chairperson of the Council Standing Committee for the years 2023 and 2024 and its chairperson for the years 2025 and 2026”, according to a Press Information Bureau press release.

Aprajita is currently posted as Deputy Director General

(DDG), Budget and Public Enterprise Finance in the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications. “Aprajita has been actively involved with ITU activities. She is also the Rappourteur for study group 2, at ITU development sector and is instrumental in writing the final report along with ITU and member countries for 2018/2021 period on ICTs and environment, which deals with e-waste management and role of frontier technologies in climate change mitigation like AI, Big Data and earth observation”, the press release said.

Aprajita sharrma will remain as vice chairperson of the council standing committee for the years 2023 and 2024 and its chairperson for the years 2025 and 2026

ITU in March opened an Area Office and an Innovation Centre in the national capital New Delhi which will serve South Asian countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India, whereas the Innovation Centre will drive research and development in telecoms technologies in South Asia. Both the ITU Area Office and the Innovation Centre at New Delhi are expected to be operational by mid-2022.