IRAS Officer Ishaan Sharma Appointed Deputy Secretary in Ministry of Home Affairs

Ishaan Sharma, an officer of the Indian Railway Accounts Service from the 2016 batch, has been appointed Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs for a four-year term. The posting was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet under the Central Staffing Scheme.

The Ministry of Home Affairs oversees internal security, border management, disaster response, police modernisation and coordination between the Centre and state governments — one of the most sensitive portfolios in the Union Government, spanning everything from paramilitary deployment to Union Territory administration.

Sharma's background is in the Indian Railway Accounts Service, a cadre focused on budgeting, auditing and resource allocation for railway finances rather than security or law enforcement. His move into MHA brings a financial-management specialist into a ministry where procurement and budgeting for internal security infrastructure, including surveillance and forensic technology, has grown steadily more complex in recent years.

The order does not specify Sharma's previous posting within the Railway Accounts Service before this central deputation. IRAS officers moving into Central Staffing Scheme roles typically come from finance or accounts postings within zonal railways or the Railway Board.

Sharma's appointment is one of several personnel moves the Centre cleared in the same round of Central Staffing Scheme orders this week, alongside another appointment and a repatriation cleared in the same batch. His four-year term is a year longer than the standard three-year central deputation tenure.

Sharma steps into MHA as the ministry expands its focus on cyber-enabled security threats and inter-state policing coordination — areas where budgeting discipline for new surveillance and forensic infrastructure matters as much as security expertise itself.

Sharma's four-year term at MHA is set to run through 2030.