The Broadband India Forum (BIF) welcomed Aruna Sundararajan IAS (Retd.), Former Secretary (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications & Chairperson, Digital Communications Commission (DCC) and one of the most respected persons of the sector, as the Chairperson of the organization with immediate effect. BIF shared that Sundararajan accepted to chair the forum and to guide the organization in its mission of improving affordable broadband proliferation and usage access in India.
Smt. Sundararajan has served as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministries of Steel, Information Technology and Telecom; and retired as Chairperson of the Digital Communications Commission in July 2019. During her tenure, Smt. Sundararajan played a pioneering role in steering various important tech policies and initiatives across the domains of telecom and hardware manufacturing, e-governance, digital payments, data protection, cyber security, and tech start-ups.
Post her retirement, Smt. Sundararajan served on the Boards of leading companies including Delhivery, Infoedge and Bharat FIH, India’s National Bank of Infra Financing and Development (NabFID), Cochin International Airport, and a neo-banking start-up Digi Vriddhi. She is also an active member of various tech mentoring and angel financing initiatives.
Announcing the Chairmanship of Smt. Aruna Sundararajan, Mr. T.V. Ramachandran, President of Broadband India Forum, stated, “We are most fortunate and honoured to have the leadership of Madam Smt. Aruna Sundararajan in our avowed mission of ‘Broadband for All’ in a technology-neutral and all-inclusive manner. We are confident that she would guide us to higher heights of excellence in serving the economy, the nation, and the consumer”.
Smt. Sundararajan has had several firsts to her credit during her illustrious career. As the Chairperson of DCC, she was one of the primary forces behind the creation of the highly-acclaimed world-class telecom policy – NDCP 2018 and has been keenly involved in giving initial support and encouragement to the unique WANI architecture. She was the Chairperson of the 5G High-Level Forum and played a key role in formulating the way forward for India to go to 5G.
Commenting on her joining BIF and sharing her vision for digital India, Smt. Aruna Sundararajan said,”I am absolutely delighted to accept the invitation to be Chairperson of Broadband India Forum and contribute my best efforts to lead the think tank in its pursuit of ‘Broadband for All’ and the digital transformation of India.”