JAIPUR: Senior IAS officer Usha Sharma was appointed as the chief secretary of Rajasthan on Monday.
The 1985 batch officer is only the second woman to occupy the top-most bureaucratic position in the state.
She succeeded Niranjan Arya, who retired from the service.
As the chief secretary, Sharma will invariably also be the chief advisor to the chief minister.
The Ashok Gehlot government had in 2009 appointed Kushal Singh as the first woman chief secretary of the state.
Until now, Sharma was the secretary of the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry in New Delhi on deputation.
She has been in Delhi on deputation since May 2012 during which she also served as the Additional Director General of Tourism, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India, and Additional Secretary of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.
In Rajasthan, Sharma has held the posts of Principal Secretary (Tourism), Commissioner (Tourism), Commissioner (Industries) and Secretary (Urban Development and Housing) among others.