Nikhil Kumar (born 15 July 1941) is a retired IPS officer and statesman hailing from Bihar who was Governor of Nagaland from 2009 to 2013 and

Governor of Kerala The governor of Kerala is the constitutional head of state of the southern Indian state of Kerala. The governor is appointed by the President of India, and holds office at the President's pleasure. The governor is ''de jure'' head of the govern ...

from 2013 to 2014. One of country's well known IPS officers of 1963 batch from the AGMUT Cadre Kumar also served as DGP of the National Security Guards,

Indo-Tibetan Border Police The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is a Central Armed Police Forces, central armed police force in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Ministry of Home Affairs. It is responsible for guarding Border guard, India’s border with ...

, Railway Protection Force and Commissioner of Delhi Police. He was elected

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

14th Lok Sabha The 14th Lok Sabha (2 June 2004 – 18 May 2009) was convened after the 2004 Indian general election held in four phases during 20 April – 10 May 2004, which led to the formation of first Manmohan Singh ministry (2004–2009). Indian National ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

from 2004 to 2009, representing the

Aurangabad Aurangabad (), officially renamed as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in 2023, is a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region. Located on a ...

constituency in

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

as a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC) political party. He also served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

Family background

He is a son of

Satyendra Narayan Sinha Satyendra Narayan Sinha (12 July 1917 – 4 September 2006) was an Indian politician and statesman, participant in the Indian independence movement, a leading light of Jaya Prakash Narayan's ‘ ''complete revolution''’ movement during the E ...

, who was

Chief Minister of Bihar The chief minister of Bihar serves as the head of the Government of Bihar, overseeing its administration and governance within the constitutional framework of India. While the Governor of Bihar holds the ceremonial role of the constitutional h ...

, a veteran Indian National Congress leader and a seven-term Member of Parliament, also from the constituency of Aurangabad. His mother Kishori Sinha was MP for Vaishali and his wife Shyama Singh also represented Aurangabad in the Lok Sabha. His grandfather Dr.

Anugrah Narayan Sinha Anugrah Narayan Sinha (18 June 1887 – 5 July 1957), known as ''Honorary titles of Indian leaders, Bihar Vibhuti'', was an Indian nationalist politician, participant in Champaran Satyagraha, Gandhian & one of the architects of modern Bihar, wh ...

, known as ''Bihar Vibhuti'', was the first Deputy Chief Minister cum

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

of Bihar and an eminent

Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi,one of the prominent figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environ ...

; his father "''Chhote Saheb''" was close in his later years to

Jayaprakash Narayan Jayaprakash Narayan Srivastava (; 11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979), also known as JP and ''Lok Nayak'' (Hindi for "People's leader"), was an Indian politician, theorist and Indian independence activist, independence activist. He is mai ...

and was one of the most prominent leaders of the anti-

Emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

movement in Bihar and also the President of the Bihar wing of the

Janata Party The Janata Party (JP, ) is an unrecognised political party in India. Navneet Chaturvedi is the current president of the party since November 2021, replacing Jaiprakash Bandhu. The JP was established as an amalgam of Indian political partie ...

in 1977. His brother-in-law is ex Rajya Sabha MP

N. K. Singh Nand Kishore Singh is an Indian politician, economist and former Indian Administrative Service officer. He is a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since March 2014 after having served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha ...

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of 15th

Finance Commission of India The Finance Commissions (IAST: ''Vitta Jayga'') are commissions periodically constituted by the President of India under ''Article 280'' of the Indian Constitution to define the financial relations between the central government of India and t ...

who has been among country's prominent bureaucrats and served as India's Revenue Secretary and also Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Civil service

He was educated at

St. Xavier's High School, Patna St. Xavier's High School, Patna (often abbreviated as SXS Patna or SXHS), is a Private school, private Catholic school, Catholic primary and secondary school, located in the neighborhood of Gandhi Maidan Marg, Gandhi Maidan in Patna, Bihar, Ind ...

and then at

Allahabad University The University of Allahabad is a Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). It is the 4th oldest mode ...

, where he earned an M.A. in Modern History. He entered the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

in 1963 and was an

Indian Police Service The Indian Police Service (IPS) is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became Partition of India, independent from the British Empire. Along with the Indian Admini ...

officer assigned to the erstwhile Union Territory of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Vice Admiral Satish Soni presenting a memento to the Governor of Kerala Nikhil Kumar

He held many important assignments and posts of national importance, in particular Additional Director General,

Border Security Force The Border Security Force (BSF) is a central armed police force in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is responsible for guarding India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It was formed in the wake of the Indo-Pak War of 196 ...

(BSF) (1989–91;1992–94), Police Commissioner of New Delhi during 1995–97. In 1997-99 he became Special Secretary with charge of

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other Self-governance, self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. This task and rol ...

at the

Home Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a Ministry (government department), government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law e ...

. He also served as

director-general A director general, general director or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''general directors'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'') is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer ...

of the

, and National Security Guards, a position he held till his retirement in July 2001. He was then appointed Member, National Security Advisory Board, Government of India (2001–03). He was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 1977 and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 1985.

Governor of Nagaland

He took the oath of office and secrecy as the Governor of Nagaland on 15 October 2009. He has been appointed a member of the Committee of Governors, constituted by the President of India to study and recommend measures for enhancing productivity, profitability, sustainability and competitiveness of the agriculture sector in India with special reference to rainfed area farming. He has been conferred with the prestigious Neelachakra Samman, during the national cultural festival Baisakhi Utsav at Jayadev Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.

Governor of Kerala

The President of India,

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

, appointed him as

on 9 March 2013. He had an illustrious tenure in the state and even in a short time, he was revered as a true "People’s Governor" and left his indelible mark on the people with ease and dignity. His astonishing capability to speak extempore on important policies, in his own inimitable style and his ability to communicate with the masses facilitated his deep and sympathetic involvement in all aspects of the life in the state of Kerala. He resigned as Governor on 4 March 2014 to contest the Lok Sabha Elections from

Positions held

* 1995-97: Commissioner of Police, Delhi ( DGP rank) * 1997: Director-General

(ITBP) * 1997-99: Special Home Secretary (Internal Security),

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

* 1999-01: Director-General National Security Guards * 2001-03: Member, National Security Advisory Board,

* 2004-09: Elected to

* 2009-13: Governor of Nagaland * 2013-14:

References

External links

Brief Profile of Nikhil Kumar,Governor of Nagaland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Nikhil 1941 births Living people Governors of Kerala Governors of Nagaland Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar Delhi politicians Chiefs of police Indian police chiefs Indian civil servants Bihar cadre civil servants People from Vaishali district Politicians from Patna University of Allahabad alumni Aurangabad, Bihar India MPs 2004–2009 People from Aurangabad, Bihar St. Xavier's Patna alumni Lok Sabha members from Bihar United Progressive Alliance candidates in the 2014 Indian general election Commissioners of Delhi Police Indian Police Service officers Chiefs of Indo-Tibetan Border Police