Meet Nina Singh, First Female Officer To Be Appointed As CISF Chief

The Central Industry Security Force (CISF) got its first female chief, as Nina Singh took the helm as Director General. The Government of India's Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions released a statement appointing several new chiefs of central parliamentary forces including the CISF, Central Reserve Police Force, and Indo-Tibetan Border Police. Singh will be holding the apex rank of the CISF till her retirement on July 31.

Who Is Nina Singh?

Nina Singh graduated from the 1989 batch of the Indian Police Services from the Rajasthan cadre. She holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Harvard University. Singh is originally from Bihar and completed her foundation education at the Patna Women's College and the Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

She has been an advocate for women's safety and rights since her early IPS days. In 2000, she was a member secretary for the State Women's Commission, where she designed an outreach programme in which the Commission would hold hearings in several districts for women in need.

From 2005 to 2006, Singh worked on a project for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make police stations more approachable. She has co-authored two research papers with Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. She is reportedly married to Indian Administrative Service officer Rohit Kumar Singh, who is the Secretary of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

Centre appoints 1988-batch IPS officer Anish Dayal Singh as Director General of Central Reserve Police Force up to December 31, 2024, the date of his superannuation, or till further orders: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions pic.twitter.com/6sVxKzsBaa

— ANI (@ANI) December 28, 2023

The Ministry appointed 1988-batch IPS officer Anish Dayal as the Director General of the CRPF, who will hold the rank till his retirement in December next year. Rahul Rasgotra from the 1989-batch IPS will serve as the DG of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police till his superannuation in September 2025. Nina Singh from the 1989-batch IPS was elevated to the DG of the CISF, making her the first woman to head the Force.

Nina Singh, A Pioneer In The IPS

Nina Singh will be taking the seat previously headed by Sheel Vardhan Singh who retired in August this year. Nina Singh was serving as the Special Director General of the CISF until her designation to the top post on Thursday. She has been associated with the CISF since 2021. The Force is responsible for security at airports across the country, sensitive installations in the aerospace and nuclear domain, and the Delhi Metro.

This is not the only time she was a trailblazer in the Police Force. In 2021, Singh became the first female officer to earn a DG ranking in the Rajasthan State. Before that, Singh was the Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation from 2013 to 2018, when she oversaw high-profile cases such as the Sheena Bora murder case and the Jiah Khan suicide case.

In 2020, Nina Singh was awarded the Ati Utkrisht Seva medal for professional excellence.