Shri Shekhar Dutt started his career in 1967 as an Indian Army officer and was awarded Sena Medal for Gallantry in the 1971 Indo-Pak War. He then joined the Indian Administrative Service in the M.P. cadre.  As Director Irrigation and Power in the Govt. of MP, he was involved in modernizing Thermal Power Generation and Distribution Systems and also setting up many Small and Micro Hydel Power Generation projects. He was also Director Command Area Development in the Govt. of India handling maximization of Irrigation and Power production and distribution of all Major Irrigation Dams of the country.

He was Managing Director of M.P. Dairy Federation in the late 1980s when he increased the Milk and Milk Product Marketing many folds bringing the state into a leading Dairy Production Hub. He also assisted Dr Kurian in setting up the National Dairy Technology Development Mission. He was also in the Board of National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India (NCDFI) and Institute of Rural Management, Ahmedabad (IRMA) during this period.

 As Principal Secretary of School Education, Sports and Youth Affairs and of Tribal Development Departments in M.P. (1996-2001) he introduced the Education Guarantee Scheme and the ‘Shiksha Karmi Bharti Niyam’ which helped in universalizing elementary education. During his tenure, he introduced large scale Teachers’ Education and Training through the Distant Training, Teaching and Learning Mode using ISRO Satellites.

Earlier, as Joint Secretary Defence Production (1991-96) in the Ministry of Defence he was in the Board of Directors of six Defence Companies. During this time he was involved in setting up a large number of new projects like Manufacture of Tanks (T72) at Avadi (TN), Engine Factory at Chennai (TN), BMP2 Factory at Medak (A.P.), Factory for Ammunition of 155mm guns at Badmal (Odisha), Ordinance Electronic Factory (OLF) at Dehradun (UP) and INSAS Rifle Project of Ordinance Factories at Kolkata and Kanpur. During this period he was also in the Board of Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) Bangalore, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) Bangalore, Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) at Hydrabad , Mazgaon Dock Ltd (MDL) Mumbai, Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers (GRSE) Kolkata and Goa Ship Yard (GSL) Goa of which he was also the Chairman for some time. During this period he initiated the production of cutting edge electronic equipment like Radars and more than 17 Modern Warships

In the Central Government, as Director General of Sports Authority of India (2001-03) he organized the necessary training and coaching of Indian National Team enabling India to win the highest ever 69 medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002. In the Asian Games at Busan also the Indian tally of medals was its highest ever in Asian Games. He also organized successfully the Afro- Asian Games at Hyderabad which was the first ever Inter-Continental Games.  As Secretary in the Ministry of Health (2003-04)he set up the National Institute of Siddha (NIS)at Chennai, the National Institute of Unani Medicine (NIUM) at Bangalore and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) for digitally storing the traditional knowledge of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Medicinal systems.

He worked as Secretary Defence Production (2004-2005) where he was responsible for overseeing and facilitating production of various Land, Sea and Air Systems. As Defence Secretary (2005-2007) of India he initiated a number of measures towards increasing the pace of modernization as well as bringing about greater probity in Defence Procurement. He was instrumental in concluding the new Indo-US Framework for Defence Relationship in 2005.This opened up Indo – US Defence and Technology Relationship between the two democracies. He was responsible for finalizing the charter of Indo-German as well as Indo-Japan and also Indo- Australian Defence Cooperation; all three of which were new treaties.

After retirement he became Deputy National Security Advisor in the PMO (Aug 2007- Jan 2010) where he looked after the issues concerning all the aspects of the Strategic Defence as well as the relative aspects of National Security.

Shekhar Dutt assumed the office of the Governor of Chhattisgarh in Jan 2010 and was Chancellor of 11 State Universities and Visitor of 6 private Universities. He was instrumental in setting up the National Centre for Natural Resources in Ravi Shankar University, Raipur with the help of Dept of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.

He has been conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) Honoris Causa by the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata in 2017.  He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Letters (DLitt) and named as an Honorary Fellow of the Swansea University, UK in 2018.  He was given the Honorary Fellowship of The Institution of Engineers (India) in December 2011. The Paul Appleby Award for 2016 was conferred upon him for distinguished services to Public Administration by IIPA. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Congress of Ethnopharmacology in 2018 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also served on the Board of Governors of DeSales University, USA from 2008 to 2010.

Shekhar Dutt has authored 2 books – Reflections on Contemporary India and India’s Defence and National Security. He has also authored a number of articles on national security, development and solar power in various journals and compilations.

At present, he is Member, Executive Council of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi; Member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Joint Warfare (CENJOWS), Ministry of Defence, GOI; Director General Solar Power Developers Association; Member of the Governing Board of the University of Engineering and Management (UEM), Kolkata; Member of the Central Board of Harijan Sewak Sangh; Member Advisory Board of Society for Ethnopharmacology; Chairman National Advisory Council of Indian Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) and  Patron, Global Counter Terrorism Council. (GCTC).