Usha Sharma is an Indian civil servant known for holding significant positions including Chief Secretary of Rajasthan. |
She is married into a political family; her brother-in-law, C. P. Joshi, is associated with the Indian National Congress and served as the Speaker of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in 2019. |
Becoming an IAS officer in 1985 after passing the UPSC exam, Usha Sharma was allocated to the Rajasthan cadre and worked as the Sub Divisional Officer in Alwar and later in the Municipal Council of Alwar region. |
On January 1, 1994, she assumed office as the Collector and District Magistrate of Bundi district, followed by being appointed as Ajmer district's Collector and District Magistrate in October 1999. |
In 2003, she became the Commissioner of the Jaipur Development Authority and went on to oversee various departments including Programme Implementation, Urban Development & Housing, Spinfed & Rajasthan Handloom Development, Industries, and Tourism & Civil Aviation. |
In 2012, she was made the Additional Director General of Tourism by the Government of India and later became the Additional Secretary of the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances in 2015. |
Appointed as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2017, Usha Sharma held the position until 2020 and then assumed the role of Secretary of the Department of Youth Affairs in 2020. |
In 2022, she became the Chief Secretary of Rajasthan and was given additional charge of Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals Ltd., Udaipur, succeeding Niranjan Arya. |
Usha Sharma is the 46th Chief Secretary of Rajasthan and the second woman to hold this top bureaucratic post, after Kushal Singh in 2009 under the Ashok Gehlot government. |
During her tenure at ASI, she oversaw the construction of Dharohar Bhawan, a new headquarters equipped with energy-efficient lighting and rainwater harvesting, which was inaugurated in 2018 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Chief guest. |