Ajit Doval
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Ajit Kumar Doval KC (born 20 January 1945) is an Indian bureaucrat, spymaster and retired police officer who has been serving as the longest tenured National Security Advisor of India since 2014. Doval previously held the position of Director of the Intelligence Bureau from 2004 to 2005, after leading its operations wing for over a decade. Since 2014, Doval is serving his third consecutive five-year term as the National Security Advisor, making him the longest-serving NSA in Indian history. A retired Indian Police Service officer from the 1968 Kerala cadre batch, Doval is recognized for his contributions to counter-terrorism and covert missions. Doval spent nearly a decade undercover in Pakistan during the 1980s, posing as a Muslim businessman to infiltrate and monitor Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) activities, including support for Sikh separatists and cross-border operations. This assignment yielded critical intelligence on Pakistani proxy networks, informing Indian countermeasures against terrorism exported to Punjab and Kashmir. He received the Kirti Chakra gallantry award in 1989, the highest peacetime military honor for civilians at the time, becoming one of the youngest police officers. In 2009, he founded the Vivekananda International Foundation, a public policy think tank based in New Delhi, and served as its director until his appointment as National Security Advisor.