Ajai Kumar Singh (Chairperson)

Dr Ajai Kumar Singh was born in Uttar Pradesh, and has Masters degrees in Political Science and Hindi. He holds a PhD comparing 12th Century Kannada Saint poet Allama Prabhu with 15th Century Hindi Saint poet Kabir. An Indian Police Service Officer of the 1974 batch (Karnataka Cadre), Dr Singh has held various posts over three and a half decades of service including Commissioner of Police, Bangalore City; and Director General of Police, CID. Dr Singh retired as Head of the Police Department, Karnataka State in 2011. While in service, he was awarded President’s Medal for Meritorious Service and President’s Medal for Distinguished Service.

After retirement, he was Awarded Honoris Causa in 2011 by Mangalore University. In 2013, Dr Singh has served on a Commission appointed by the Supreme Court of India to enquire into some complaints of Police excess in Manipur.

He has helped in establishing and functioning of the three Police Helplines (Women, Child and Elders) of Bangalore City Police. Fond of trekking in Himalayas, he has published two collections of poems in Hindi and in all seven books including translation of Kannada poets, Kannada novel Ghachar Ghochar of Vivek Shanbhag and Sri M’s Autobiography from English to Hindi. He has also visited Art museums in London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and some Indian cities.

Dr Singh has been on the Board of many NGO’s. A trustee of India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) since 2018, and its Chairperson from 2022.