Axis Bank’s Neelkanth Mishra has reportedly been appointed by the union government as part time chairperson of UIDAI

Neelkanth Mishra has reportedly been appointed by the Union government as the part time chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India UIDAI, the nodal body in charge of issuing Aadhaar numbers. He is Chief Economist at Axis Bank and Head of Global Research at Axis Capital.

Meanwhile, Nilesh Shah, Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited, and Prof Mausam, Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at IIT Delhi, have been named as part-time UIDAI members, Bloomberg reported.

The three appointments are for a period of three years or up to the age of 65 years old, whichever is earlier. Mishra, who has been named as the part time chairperson, assumed the position of Chief Economist and Head of Global Research at Axis Bank in May 2023 after spending over two decades at Credit Suisse, where he served as Co head of APAC Strategy, India Equity Strategy, and as India Head of Research.

He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, according to the details present at LinkedIn. He has been an advisor to many government committees, and also been a member of the economic advisory council to the 15th finance commission, according to a report by Moneycontrol.

Moreover, as per the report, he has also been a strong advocate of the government's production linked incentive schemes.

The Unique Identification Authority of India is a statutory authority established under the provisions of the Aadhaar Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services Act, 2016 (Aadhaar Act 2016) on July 12, 2016, by the Government of India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The Aadhaar Act 2016 has been amended by the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 (14 of 2019) with effect from July 25, 2019.

UIDAI was created to issue Unique Identification numbers, named as Aadhaar, to all residents of India. The authority consists of a Chairperson, two part time Members and the Chief Executive Officer, who is also the Member Secretary of the Authority.