Dr. Motilal Sharma retired from the Asian Development Bank as Principal Education Specialist in the year 2002 after completing his service as an International Civil Servant for more than 19 years. Currently he is Principal Advisor of Worldview International Foundation, Sri Lanka and Chairman of Worldview Hindustan Foundation, India. He was born in Sardar Shahr, Distt. Churu, Rajasthan (India). He completed his Ph.D. degree in Education (M.S. University of Baroda, India); M.Ed. and M.A. in Political Science, (University of Rajasthan, India); B. Phil. in Educational Technology (University of Birmingham, UK); and a course in Non-formal Education (Michigan State University, USA).
He started his career as primary school teacher and rose to the position of University Professor. He has teaching experience of about 20 years together with cumulative experience of more than 19 years in operational activities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as an International Civil Servant as well as work at the regional and international circles in education and training, especially as they apply to poverty reduction and sustainable development. Prior to joining ADB in 1983, he taught postgraduate courses, and guided research at the post-graduate and doctoral levels, in the field of education. He has published five books and more than 100 professional papers in reputed journals of education. Thirteen of his doctoral students were awarded Ph.D. degrees in education.

While at ADB he has been mission leader over a period of about 19 years in multi-million dollar project preparation, administration, and evaluation in more than a dozen Asia-Pacific countries. As a mission leader, he has led teams of professionals of the highest competence from developed and developing countries, and donor agencies, as well as dealt with senior officials in various developing member countries of ADB. As part of his duties in processing of ADB'S multi-million dollar projects he has worked in path-breaking areas such as girls/women's education, poverty reduction, beneficiary participation projects, vocational/technical and skills development, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and lately in peace development education.

He has prepared, implemented and worked as a resource person in international conferences, and have been acknowledged as an international expert in his professional field. In addition, he has done pioneering work in the areas of poverty reduction and ICT, and has been acknowledged internationally as one of the few global experts on open learning systems and distance education. The significant regional seminars he was responsible for, have included (i) Regional Seminar on Distance Education, Bangkok, 1986; and (ii) Round Table Conference on Distance Education for South Asian Countries, Islamabad, 1989, and several national seminars as part of project preparation and project supervision. The Regional Seminar on Distance Education, 1986, was a landmark event in the field of distance education as many of its resolutions were implemented by several DMCs of ADB and its two volume proceedings , were widely circulated.. In addition, at ADB he published more than 30 professional staff/resource papers on various aspects of education development. He has been listed each year in the "Who's Who in the World" publication published in USA every year since 1994. He has worked as an International Consultant on the World Bank education projects.