Brijesh Singh is one of India’s most accomplished, multidimensional, and widely recognised Indian Police Service officers, a law enforcement leader whose career has positioned him at the very forefront of India’s battle against cybercrime, whose intellectual range has produced three published books including an acclaimed historical thriller, and whose administrative capabilities have earned him the distinction of being appointed Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the first senior IPS officer to hold that position in the state in recent years.
His story is that of a cop who is also a thinker, a security expert who is also a storyteller, and a public servant who consistently brings innovation to the ancient challenge of keeping people safe.
Profile
| Full Name | Brijesh Singh |
| Batch | 1996 |
| Cadre | Maharashtra (Indian Police Service) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | IPS Officer, Cybersecurity Expert, Author, Public Administrator |
| Educational Qualifications | B.E. (Mining Engineering); MA (Psychology); MA (Public Administration); Diploma in Computer Forensics; PGD (Foreign Trade) |
| Current Position | Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra |
| Books Published | Three books including The Cloud Chariot |
Early Life
Brijesh Singh’s early life and personal background have not been extensively documented in public records, consistent with the private profile typical of senior Indian civil servants. His educational history, however, reveals an extraordinarily broad intellectual formation: beginning with an engineering degree in Mining, he subsequently pursued master’s degrees in two entirely different disciplines, Psychology and Public Administration, before adding specialised qualifications in Computer Forensics and Foreign Trade. This remarkable academic breadth speaks to an intellectual curiosity and capacity for sustained learning that has become one of the most distinctive features of his public identity.
Education
Brijesh Singh’s educational qualifications are among the most diverse of any senior IPS officer in India. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) in Mining Engineering, a technical qualification rooted in physical science and industrial operations. He subsequently earned a Master of Arts in Psychology, reflecting a deep interest in human behaviour and the psychological dimensions of crime, investigations, and public communication. He also holds a Master of Arts in Public Administration, equipping him for the governance responsibilities that would define the later phases of his career.
His specialised qualifications include a Diploma in Computer Forensics, obtained in recognition of the growing centrality of digital evidence in modern law enforcement, and a Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in Foreign Trade. He cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination in 1996 and was allocated to the Maharashtra cadre, beginning his police service career the same year.
His commitment to continuous learning has never abated: in his own words, he spends approximately three hours each night, his personal “me time”, reading, researching, and writing, in what he describes as the only part of his demanding schedule that is entirely his own.
Career
Brijesh Singh joined the Indian Police Service in 1996, Maharashtra cadre, beginning his career in field policing before steadily expanding his specialisations into some of the most technically demanding and strategically significant areas of modern law enforcement. His career trajectory is exceptional both for its breadth and its consistent pattern of innovation in policing.
In his early career, he served in various policing roles across Maharashtra, building operational law enforcement experience. He served as Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) for Mumbai, where he led technology upgradation, supervised VIP and VVIP security arrangements, and streamlined the daily traffic management of India’s most congested city, a role demanding both operational precision and massive-scale coordination.
As Inspector General (IG) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Maharashtra Police, he implemented the prestigious Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project, digitising 1.42 crore legacy documents and connecting all 1,100 police stations in Maharashtra through an advanced technology platform. His team trained one lakh (100,000) police personnel for the CCTNS implementation, an achievement recognised with the Government e-Excellence Award presented to the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) by the Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra.
His most nationally celebrated contribution came through his leadership of Maharashtra’s cybersecurity architecture. He served as Special Inspector General of Police for Women Atrocity Prevention and Cybercrime, a special authority created by the Maharashtra government specifically to address the growing threat of digital crime. In this role, he built Maharashtra’s cyber policing infrastructure from the ground up: establishing 48 state-of-the-art District Cyber Labs, making Maharashtra the first state in India to sanction 43 dedicated cyber police stations. He led the Maharashtra Cyber Security Project and the Combating Cybercrimes Unit, integrating Predictive Policing technology, cutting-edge Cyber Forensics tools, CERT-MH (Maharashtra’s Computer Emergency Response Team), and a Centre of Excellence in cybersecurity. He also established the Maharashtra Cyber Digital Crime Unit (MCDCU), a government-industry anti-piracy collaboration, and led cyber capacity-building programmes involving more than one lakh people.
As Secretary and Director-General of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) for Maharashtra, he led the modernisation of the state’s public communication infrastructure, establishing a Media and Social-Media Analysis Centre and creating a state-of-the-art recording studio for government communications. This role gave him significant media management experience alongside his law enforcement expertise.
In February 2023, he was appointed Principal Secretary in the office of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the first senior IPS officer to be appointed to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Office in recent years. This appointment placed him at the heart of Maharashtra’s executive governance, advising on matters of security, technology, and administration at the highest level of state government. He has also served as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for Mumbai City, one of the most operationally demanding policing roles in India.
He is associated with Gateway House, where he is Adjunct Distinguished Fellow in Cybersecurity Studies, and has participated in national debates on digital governance, including an analysis of the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill on Sansad TV with Member of Parliament Mahesh Jethmalani.
Published Works
- The Cloud Chariot – A historical thriller set in 1st century BCE Kalinga; his most personal and longest-worked book, released 2024/2025
- A book on cybersecurity and information security
- A further published work on information security/digital crime
Awards & Recognition
- Government e-Excellence Award – to SCRB, CID, Pune (under his leadership) for CCTNS digitisation and capacity building
- Led Maharashtra to become India’s first state with 43 dedicated cyber police stations
- Recognised as one of India’s foremost cybersecurity and digital policing experts
- First senior IPS officer appointed Principal Secretary in Maharashtra CMO in recent years
Social Media
Brijesh Singh maintains a professional presence relevant to his cybersecurity and governance expertise. He engages in national policy debates through platforms including Sansad TV appearances and his association with Gateway House’s cybersecurity research community. His books are available through major publishing channels and have generated discussion in literary and policy circles.
Personal Life
Brijesh Singh is known for his disciplined personal routine, waking early, dedicating evenings to reading and writing, and maintaining an exceptional standard of professional preparation. He has described his writing process as a nightly practice that occurs in the three hours when “there are no demands on his time” from work or family. This discipline has allowed him to produce three books alongside one of the most demanding IPS careers in Maharashtra’s history. He describes The Cloud Chariot as the book dearest to his heart, one he began first but completed last, having spent the longest on its research and writing. He is married and his family background is private.
Net Worth
As a senior IPS officer at the Additional Director General/Principal Secretary rank in Maharashtra, Brijesh Singh draws a government salary consistent with the highest grades in India’s police pay scale. Specific net worth information is not publicly available. His income beyond his government salary is supplemented by royalties from his published books, speaking and research fees from his Gateway House fellowship, and television appearances on policy programmes.
Conclusion
Brijesh Singh’s biography defies easy categorisation. He is simultaneously a field policeman and a forensic technologist, a security strategist and a historical novelist, a government administrator and an independent scholar.
His career has positioned Maharashtra, and by extension India, at the forefront of modern cybersecurity policing, and his intellectual output has enriched both the policy conversation about digital safety and India’s contemporary historical fiction literature.
In a nation that tends to pigeonhole its most accomplished public servants, Brijesh Singh stands as a powerful argument that the best professionals are those who refuse to be contained by a single definition of what their work can achieve.