Retired DG of BSF Pankaj Kumar Singh appointed Deputy NSA

Deputy National Security Adviser: Pankaj Kumar Singh, a retired director general of the Border Security Force (BSF), was selected for a two-year term as the deputy national security adviser in the National Security Council Secretariat. Singh, a 1988-batch IPS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, has been appointed on a re-employment contract. On December 31, 2022, Singh stepped down as the BSF’s chief. When Singh took charge of the BSF on August 31, 2021, he had created history of a son and a father holding the top post of a paramilitary force during their services. His father and retired IPS officer of the 1959-batch, Prakash Singh, had also headed the BSF from June, 1993 to January, 1994. Singh holds LLB and MPhil degrees, besides MBA from the IIM, Ahmedabad.

January 2023 Current Affairs Quiz

Currently, retired IPS officer Dattatray Padsalgikar, former R&AW chief Rajinder Khanna and retired IFS officer Pankaj Saran also served as Deputy National Security Advisors.

Earlier Posting

• Singh had earlier served with the Union government as Inspector General of the CRPF in Chhattisgarh and IG (Operations) at CRPF headquarters in Delhi.
• Before becoming BSF DG, he also served in the BSF as chief of the Eastern Frontier, he played an instrumental role in bringing down cattle smuggling through West Bengal and Assam borders.
• Cattle smuggling over the Indo-Bangla border decreased 87% between 2015 and 2021. When he became DG of the BSF, he had to negotiate the contentious amendment to BSF jurisdiction which was increased to 50km from the border as many states opposed it.
• He has served in the Rajasthan Police as well as in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), during which he cracked an infamous sex scandal that had rocked Jammu and Kashmir, besides being involved in solving several cases related to corruption.
• The government was so moved by his proposal to hold the BSF’s Rising Day in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, in 2021 that it has now ordered all paramilitary groups, including the Army, to hold their founding and raising days outside of Delhi.