N. Ravi Shanker combines rich administrative experience with a flair for academics.
He is an alumnus of Loyola College, University of Madras - [B.Sc. Physics in 1974] and IISc Bangalore - [B.E. Electrical Technology & Electronics in 1977].
He served as a Member of the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) from 1980 to 2015. During his Civil Service career he served in the Govt of Uttar Pradesh; Govt of Uttarakhand and Govt of India.
Key assignments that he held in Govt of UP were that of District Magistrate of Muzaffarnagar; MD of UP Electronics Corpn (UPTRON); Housing Commissioner; and Secretary (Home Dept).
From 2000-07, he was Secretary to Governor of Uttarakhand; and was associated with the process of facilitating the setting up of Private Universities in the State. As Secretary (Education) from 2000-02, he helped expand the Educational Infrastructure in the state from Primary level to Higher Education level.
From 2007-14, he served in the Govt of India at various levels - Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and as Secretary.
As Joint Secy in Dept of IT, from 2007-11, he was the Country Representative on UN-IGF & ICANN, the two global bodies on Internet Governance. He successfully participated in ICANN deliberations, leading to policy on permitting Internet domain names in Indian languages (.bharat in Indian languages). He negotiated effectively with APNIC to obtain the right to host NIR (National Internet Registry) in India. He was the CEO of NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India) from 2007-11. He modelled NIXI into an ideal example of Public-Private Partnership. On Policy formulation he contributed towards the ITIR (Information Technology Investment Region) Policy. He also co-ordinated all activities relating to the formulation of the triad of National Policies on IT, Electronics & Telecom. On Programme Management side, he co-ordinated the efforts related to the setting up of NKN (National Knowledge Network) to interconnect Institutions of Research & Higher Education. He also contributed towards initiating HR programs for skills enhancement of Indian IT sector.
He served as Administrator, USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund), in Department of Telecom from 2011-14. In this capacity he was appointed as the First CMD of BBNL (Bharat Broadband Network Ltd); a SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) set up to implement the ambitious NOFN (National Optical Fiber Network) project [renamed as the BharatNet project]. He completed the major planning phase of the project, and concluded the activities of the pilot testing.
In 2014, he was appointed as Secretary (Administrative Reforms), Govt of India. After a brief stint in that position, he was appointed as Chief Secretary of Govt of Uttarakhand. He retired from this position in July 2015.
Post his retirement in 2015; he served as an Adviser to the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies; Dehradun, from 2016-18. He also served as Adjunct Faculty in Dept of Management Studies at IIT Roorkee in 2016. He is a Visiting Faculty at NCGG (National Center for Good Governance), Mussoorie since 2016.
