Senior IPS officer and director of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Atul Karwal, has been appointed Director-General of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
The appointment committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the appointment of Mr. Karwal, a 1988 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre.
The post of DG, NDRF, has been temporarily upgraded on a personal basis for a period of two years from the date of joining the post or till further orders, whichever is earlier.
However, the government did not issue orders so far in respect of appointing a new director for the SVP NPA. In all likelihood, Mr. Karwal would continue to act as director till a new incumbent is posted. “The appointment of the new director will be known latest by Monday,” a source in the academy said. Considered to be the “blue-eyed boy” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Karwal took charge as the 32nd director of the country's premier police school in December 2019, and since then he had made several important changes in the academy, with major focus on physical training of the probationary IPS officers.
The country’s first bureaucrat to scale Mount Everest in 2008, Mr. Karwal was earlier posted as the assistant director (outdoor training) of NPA from 1999 to 2002. Prior to this, he served as the Additional Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). His wife Anita Karwal is Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, and prior to this, she was the chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The couple has two daughters -- Janvi and Tanvi.
A fitness, sports and adventure sports enthusiast, the officer holds a first degree in black belt in Wing-Tsun Kung Fu and is trained in martial arts from Donald Melville. A passionate sky and scuba diver, Mr. Karwal also completed several full and half marathons, including Half Ironman held in Goa. Last year during an interaction, Mr. Modi said he was also “trained” by the academy director Karwal earlier in his political career.
