The government has appointed senior IPS officer Navin Kumar Singh as the new National Cybersecurity Coordinator (NCSC), the post responsible for directing the country’s cyber threat response and coordinating across government bodies.
Singh, a 1996-batch officer of the Jharkhand cadre, is the first police officer to hold the position since its creation in 2014. He takes over from Lt Gen M U Nair, whose tenure ended earlier this year.
Before this appointment Singh headed the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC), the agency mandated to safeguard India‘s critical digital networks including those in power, banking and telecom.
Under his leadership NCIIPC conducted sector-wide cybersecurity drills, finalised an updated national cybersecurity strategy and promoted frameworks for incident response and recovery.
Earlier, as Jharkhand’s nodal officer for cybercrime, Singh initiated digitisation of police processes and set up systems to respond to the rising number of online fraud cases. He also contributed to the rollout of the Crime and Criminal Tracking and Networking System (CCTNS) within the state police.
The office of the NCSC works under the National Security Council Secretariat and coordinates with CERT-In, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, security agencies and regulators.
Its role includes monitoring cyber threats through the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) which shares data among agencies for timely action. Public-facing platforms such as the Cyber Swachhta Kendra, which offers malware removal tools, and the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) remain part of the ecosystem.
Singh’s immediate focus is expected to be on consolidating public-private partnerships, strengthening defences in critical sectors and improving India’s position in global cyber preparedness rankings.
His experience at NCIIPC in running cyber drills and developing talent is expected to shape his approach to building a coordinated national cyber response.
