Dr R S Sharma was appointed Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on 10 of August 2015. Prior to joining TRAI he was Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. He has also worked as Chief Secretary to the State Government of Jharkhand (India). His other assignments include Director General & Mission Director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) where he was responsible for the overall implementation of the project to provide Unique Identification (christened as “Äadhaar”) for all residents.

Before his posting at UIDAI, Dr Sharma worked with the Government of Jharkhand as Principal Secretary of the Departments of Science and Technology, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Information Technology (IT), Rural Development and Human Resources Development. As Principal Secretary of the IT Department, Dr Sharma was responsible for formulation of State policies in the IT and e-Governance areas and oversaw the implementation of various e-Governance Projects in all the Departments of the State Government. Mr Sharma's contributions to IT and e-Governance have been widely recognized both within and outside India and he has been responsible for implementing a number of Projects relating to ICT Infrastructure, Process Re-engineering and Service Delivery with Public Private Partnership (PPP) models.