Born on 31st August 1973 Mr. Abhinav Kumar(285 T.A) is one of the most distinguished civil servants that have passed out form the portals of the Doon School. While at school he was considered a prodigy. He won the S.R. Das GK prize and missed the Scholar’s Blazer by a whisker when he was in just his A Form ie. class 10th when he had to leave school for an exchange program to do his A-Levels from Charterhouse.

In Charterhouse he was head and shoulders above his peers and so he finished a year early and came back for a short stint to teach in his alma mater while his own batchmates were in SC-Form ie. class 12th. Thereafter he went to the University of Oxford where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Mansfield College, and graduated in 1993 with an honour’s degree. He came back to India and after a brief stint in advertising, he joined India Today as a journalist. In 1996 Abhinav was selected to the Indian Police Service. In his illustrious career of 27 years so far, he has served as the Chief of Police of Pauri Garhwal, Haridwar, Dehradun and Udham Singh Nagar.

He has also served as A.D.C. to two Governors of Uttarakhand, an Additional Secretary to the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and as a Personal Secretary to former Union Minister Dr. Shashi Tharoor. He has also served as DIG in Uttarakhand and in the ITBP Ladakh sector as well as IG in the BSF Western Command and Uttarakhand. Abhinav is known to be a fearless, hardworking and upright officer and has received a Commendation from the President of India in July 2007 and was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Services on Republic Day in 2012.

Although presently he holds the post of Additional Director General of police Uttarakhand he has also been appointed Special Principal Secretary to the chief minister of Uttarakhand and Special Principal Secretary Sports and Youth Welfare.

Abhinav is an avid reader and a prolific writer. His articles have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers from time to time and is a regular contributor to the Indian Express on police and national security issues. Like a true Dosco Abhinav enjoys the outdoors especially trekking, something which he picked up in school . Abhinav’s wife is in the Indian Foreign Service and they and they have two lovely children Afsana and Aviral and again like a true Dosco he sent Aviral to Doon – if he had his way he would have sent Afsana also! Anyways I think I am eating into Abhinav’s time. Abhinav please come and take the stage. It is an honour to have you with us.

– ABHINAV KUMAR