Know Your Babu: New DMICDC CEO Alkesh Sharma, his journey from agri-management to industry

AFTER one and half years of adhocism, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), a government agency engaged in building industrial cities between Delhi and Mumbai, gets a full-fledged Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. Alkesh Sharma, a 1990 batch Kerala cadre IAS who had earlier worked in ministries such as tourism, urban development and road transport and highways, will be the DMICDC’s new CEO and MD. Here are 10 things you may like to know about this officer who knows Odiya, Gujarati and Urdu, apart from English and his mother tongue Hindi:

1. Alkesh Sharma gets a three-year-tenure as CEO and MD of DMICDC.
2. This 1990 batch Kerala cadre IAS originally hails from Rajasthan. Incidentally, Rajasthan is one of the six states through which the proposed industrial corridor passes, the others being Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
3. 52-year-old Sharma is a graduate in agriculture from SKN college of agriculture, Jobner, Rajasthan. He studied agronomy and crop Science (1976 – 1979).
4. He did his post-graduate in rural management from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA).
5. During the early phase of his career as an IAS (1994-96), he was an assistant director in Kerala State Tourism Corporation, and later a director and additional secretary in the department of tourism, government of Kerala.
6. He also served as collector of Thrissoor and Malappuram district in Kerala.
7. At the centre, he was in the ministry of urban development in his first stint, and then has been the joint secretary in the union ministry of road transport and highways since September 2012.
8. Between 2007 and 2009, he was on a foreign assignment. He was then the national project coordinator in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
9. He then became the Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation. He also served as secretary to government of Kerala, industries (investment promotion) department.
10. Sharma is a polyglot. According to his executive record sheet available in the DoPT website, he knows Odiya, Gujarati and Urdu, apart from English and Hindi.