Ajit Doval (born 20 January 1945) is a retired Indian intelligence officer who has been National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since May 2014, the longest anyone has held the post. A police officer by training, he spent most of his career in the Intelligence Bureau, much of it in undercover field operations, and headed the agency in 2004–05. He was the first police officer to receive the Kirti Chakra, a gallantry award usually given to soldiers.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Ajit Kumar Doval |
| Born | 20 January 1945, Ghiri Banelsyun, Pauri Garhwal, United Provinces (now Uttarakhand), India |
| Age | 81 |
| Office | National Security Adviser (2014–present) |
| Service | Indian Police Service, Kerala cadre (1968 batch) |
| Earlier post | Director, Intelligence Bureau (2004–2005) |
| Education | Ajmer Military School; Agra University (M.A. Economics) |
| Spouse | Aruni Doval |
| Children | 2 (Shaurya and Vivek) |
| Honour | Kirti Chakra (1988) |
Early Life
Doval was born in a Garhwali family; his father was an army officer. He studied at the military school in Ajmer and took a master’s degree in economics from Agra University in 1967. He joined the Indian Police Service the following year and was assigned to Kerala, where he helped control riots in Thalassery in 1971.
Intelligence Career
He moved to the Intelligence Bureau in 1972. In Mizoram he won over several commanders of the insurgent leader Laldenga, which helped bring about the 1986 peace accord. He is said to have spent years in Pakistan under cover. In 1988, before Operation Black Thunder, he entered the Golden Temple in Amritsar posing as a Pakistani agent and gathered information on the militants inside; he was awarded the Kirti Chakra for this. He worked in Kashmir in the 1990s, turning militants into government allies, and was one of the negotiators at Kandahar when an Indian Airlines aircraft was hijacked in December 1999. He retired as director of the Intelligence Bureau in January 2005. In 2009 he founded the Vivekananda International Foundation, a think tank in Delhi.
National Security Adviser
Appointed on 30 May 2014, he helped secure the release of Indian nurses trapped in Iraq that year. He is associated with a more assertive security policy, including the 2016 strikes across the Line of Control after the Uri attack, the 2019 air strike at Balakot and Operation Sindoor in May 2025. He is India’s special representative for boundary talks with China and has led dialogue with the United States, Russia and Gulf states on security and technology. He has held cabinet rank since 2019.
Personal Life
Doval is married to Aruni, and they have two sons. Shaurya Doval heads the India Foundation think tank. He keeps a low public profile and rarely gives interviews.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Ajit Doval born?
Ajit Doval was born on 20 January 1945 in Ghiri Banelsyun, Pauri Garhwal, United Provinces (now Uttarakhand), India and is 81 years old.
Featured image: Ajit Doval (left) with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department, Washington, 30 March 2016. Photo by U.S. Department of State, in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
