Tamil Nadu-cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Archana Ramasundram made history on Monday when she was appointed as Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Director General. She is the first woman police officer to lead a central paramilitary force that guards the country’s borders.
Prior to her appointment, the 58-year-old Archana Ramasundram, a 1980-batch officer, was the Director of the National Crime Records Bureau. She will now head the SSB, which is tasked with securing India’s long and porous border with Nepal and Bhutan.
She will head the SSB till the date of her superannuation — September 30, 2017 — according to the order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Archana Ramasundram was born on October 1, 1957 and hold an MA as well as MSc degree. She was awarded a President's Medal in 1995.
She was in the news in 2014 when she joined as CBI additional director joined without formally getting relieved from her parent cadre. Even then she was the first woman officer to be made an additional director in the CBI.
But her appointment was challenged in the Supreme Court, which restrained her. She was later appointed as National Crime Records Bureau Director.
Her husband Ramasundaram was a senior state IAS officer in Tamil Nadu. He took voluntary retirement in 2011.