The Narendra Modi-led Indian government has assigned 1989-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Nitin Agarwal to the position of the new BSF chief.
The move is significant for the country's security apparatus. given that Agarwal's appointment as the new director general of India's main paramilitary force came nearly six months after the former BSF boss Pankaj Kumar Singh's retirement. Singh retired in December 2022.
In Sunday's announcement, the Indian government stated that the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It assigned Nitin Agarwal, who at the moment holds the posts of additional director general, head of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and is a Level-16 BSF official. According to the Pay Matrix, Level-16 is the latest pay scale of the Indian government according to which an officer receives his/her wages).
All You Need to Know About Nitin Agarwal
Nitin Agarwal graduated from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, getting his B-Tech (Bachelors in Technology) and M-Tech (Masters in Technology) in 1987 and 1989 respectively.
Agarwal began his career in the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1989 after passing the civil service exam in Kerala state in 1989.
The IPS is the central civil service of police forces in India, whose officers are in demand all over the country. Moreover, its graduates are appointed to high positions in the Central Armed Forces, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Security Guard (NSG), the National Investigative Agency (NIA), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Special Protection Group.
He also occupied positions in different police agencies, including in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and the Kerala Police.
After the IPS, Agarwal became the Additional Director General in the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police Force in New Delhi.
He managed to play the main role in operations against the Naxals (maoists) in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand. Additionally, he took part in the operations called Thunderstorm, Double Bull, Octopus, and Chakarbandha.
The Naxals are one of the major insurgent groups fighting the Indian Security Forces in the region of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.