Who is Anish Dayal Singh? Former CRPF and ITBP DG appointed as deputy National Security Advisor

The Union government has appointed former CRPF and ITBP Director General Anish Dayal Singh as the new deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) with a mandate to handle internal affairs, reported PTI citing official sources.

Singh, a 1988-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from the Manipur cadre, had served for nearly 30 years in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before heading the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and most recently, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

He retired from the service in December 2024.

As the deputy NSA, Singh will be in-charge of internal affairs of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, and Naxal and Northeastern insurgency, reported PTI.

During his tenure as CRPF chief, Singh was instrumental in a number of key initiatives, such as CRPF’s strides in combating Naxalism, establishing over three dozen forward operating bases, and introducing four new battalions in the Left-Wing Extremism-affected areas.

The appointment comes alongside the Union government’s approval of granting honorary ranks to retiring personnel of the central armed forces, a policy Singh championed.

Earlier this year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs approved a policy aimed at boosting the morale of subordinate officers in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles.

This proposal was originally moved by Singh himself with an aim to overcome the long-standing issue of stagnation in promotional avenues, with some constables waiting as long as 20 years for their first promotion.

Former R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) chief Rajinder Khanna is the Additional NSA, while retired IPS officer TV Ravichandran and former IFS (Indian Foreign Service) officer Pawan Kapoor are the two serving deputy NSAs.

As a CRPF chief, Singh also oversaw the force’s role in ensuring security during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the first Assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

He was also instrumental in a number of key initiatives, such as CRPF’s strides in combating Naxalism, establishing over three dozen forward operating bases, and introducing four new battalions in the Left-Wing Extremism-affected areas.

Internally, Singh had initiated a comprehensive realignment of over 130 CRPF battalions — the first such restructuring in eight years, which is aimed at improving operational efficiency and providing troops with more “family time,” reducing the average distance between units and their parent centres from 1,200 km to 500 km.