D.P. Sharma


Durga Prasad Sharma is an Indian Professor, Author, Cloud Computing Scientist and Orator. Sharma has been honoured by numerous awards, and laurels. He is the recipient of one of the highest civilian award Sardar Patel Life Time Achievement International Award of the Sardar Patel Foundation, India.
In September 2017, he was invited to extend his support as National Ambassador by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to the nation-wide campaign Swachh Bharat Mission. He is conferred for the award named ‘Shantidoot’ by the World Peace Movement Trust India.
He is also the fellow and member of many international and national scientific committees and organisations.

Early life and career

D.P. Sharma was born on 1 May 1969 in Samona village, Tehsil Rajakhera, Dholpur, in Rajasthan. He earned a Ph.D., MTech, and MCA from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. He also received certifications in WSAD and DB2 from IBM USA. Dr. D.P. Sharma's life is full of struggle as he is physically disabled due to the polio paralysis in the right leg and left arm.
Sharma, son of a small farmer, Ninua Ram Sharma, was born in a small village, Samona, Rajasthan. He was the second youngest in the number of 5 brothers and 3 sisters. At birth, he was normal and healthy, but at the age of 5, he got paralyzed in the left hand and right leg. After completing his primary level education, he used to travel a long distance of 18 Kilometers from his village Samona to the small town Rajakhera, every day, on barefoot while pursuing secondary and higher secondary level schooling. He received two scholarships due to his talent, RRMI Merit Scholarship Foundation, India and PWD Scholarship from Rajasthan Government. Due to the financial crisis, none of his five brothers and three sisters had been educated up to high school. But Sharma passed all the challenges in the way of achieving higher education. After schooling, he completed his degree-level education from Government College, Dholpur. Later, he received his Master of Computer Application, Master of Technology in Information Technology and Ph.D. from the University of Rajasthan India.
Sharma is a critical thinker of what he calls an "education revolutionist" of the Indian education system. Sharma advocates end to end transformations in the Indian education system in which there is a close convergence of ancient and modern education so that it can run both moral and spiritual ethical perspectives from the international perspective of the individual along with the professional and technical education. He strongly advocates the research, life, and projects as three scientific domains where science through its welfare-oriented projects can make human life meaningful, and purposeful as the science, project, and life are all temporary undertakings.
In 2000, Sharma joined as an assistant professor of Computer Science & Informatics and became a full professor in 2008. He has been serving as an International Expatriate Consultant of ILO – an autonomous institution of the United Nations. In addition to the full-time services, he has been invited and supporting as an external expatriate visiting professor and research adviser to doctoral scholars at the University of People USA, University Paris Sud France and The Technical University of Nuremberg Georg Simon Ohm, Germany under salient schemes and projects viz Distributed Learning DAAD & Sandwich. He has also supervised a Ph.D. candidate He has been serving as Expatriate International Adviser to research scholars as a member of the International advisory commission at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Education is central to individual evolution and must be a right for all individuals. It provides each person with the possibility to fully participate in society, to access the jobs and earning opportunities, and to develop one's potential. Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms the right to education as a fundamental right.
The participation of persons with disabilities to higher educational institutions has started to be investigated more thoroughly in recent years, in various countries, particularly flow is from the developed to developing countries. Pathways to inclusion in Indian higher education systems, Dr. Sharma designed a University System Framework for contextualized education and rehabilitation schemes for persons with disabilities towards the exploration of their hidden abilities. On the basis of Sharma's recommendation, the Govt of Rajasthan is in the process of establishing an International University for Differently-abled people at Jaipur for technology-enabled training, education, and rehabilitation.
In the year 1994, Sharma joined a national advocacy campaign for a new draft of disabled welfare and rehabilitation ordinance in India. Later in the year 1995, the Government of India approved it as a new law 'Equal Opportunity, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Act 1995'. The United Nations was in the process of designing global guidelines and rehabilitation framework for the people with disabilities under United Nations Disability Convention 2006. Then Sharma was invited by the Indian state Government to forward his deep-rooted professional suggestions and recommendations and he prepared a draft with a list of recommendations to be incorporated and forwarded to the United Nations through the Government of India. In 2005, he developed an innovative idea of the 'Job Search Engine' for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India. This tool was designed to help in the search of jobs for people with disabilities based on their suitability of working conditions and physical limitations. March-April 2008 issue of the SMB edition of PCQuest International Magazine covered the innovation 'Job Search Engine' and published on the cover page as a 'prestigious IT innovation'.
In 2015, he was declared as an International Fellow of Free Software Foundation of Europe, Germany. Rajasthan Patrika has honored him as a freelance columnist and celebrity writer to write editorial articles on labor and disability issues and policies. Among his best-known Information Technology contributions; DPS-Yemane Shareme Model, DPS-KA-AT Framework, and the AT-DP KSPF Framework are the most known contributions. DP Sharma was also recognized and honored by the IBM-USA as National Academic Faculty Ambassador for Cloud Computing offering. He was one of the ten faculty ambassadors at the national level who were selected on 6 July 2009.
His popular research on "Effectiveness of Yoga@Work Program on Neck and Shoulder Pain in Information Technology Employees" in joint association with Warwick Research Services- the UK and Yog-Kulam-UK is published by World Health Organization. He is the author of 21 books and has published over 117 publications.
D.P. Sharma is the member of editorial boards of 29 International Journals like IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Maxwell and others. He has been invited as the keynote speaker and delivered speeches and plenary talks in many national and international educational and scientific events, symposiums and conferences held at North America, China, South Korea, Canada, Malaysia, Yemen, UK, Egypt, Dubai, Germany etc. including TEDxRTU.
He has been invited to serve and support the University of the People the USA; a university supported by the United Nations for the ‘noble cause’ i.e. access to education for poor and refugees.

Awards & honours