Hon'ble Thiru. R. N. Ravi
The Governor of Tamilnadu and Chancellor of Bharathidasan University
Thiru. R. N. Ravi was born in Patna, Bihar and did his Masters in Physics in 1974. After a brief stint in journalism, he joined the Indian Police Service in 1976 and was allotted to the Kerala Cadre. He served in Kerala in various capacities including Districts for over a decade and then in different parts of the country in various capacities. While serving in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he led several anti-corruption crusades against organized criminal gangs including the mining mafias in the country.
While in the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, the premier intelligence agency of the country, he served largely in theatres of insurgencies and violence including in Jammu & Kashmir, the North East, and Maoist-infected regions. He also specialized in the dynamics of human migration in South Asia and worked extensively on the political sociology of border populations.
He has played crucial roles in conflict resolutions in areas affected by ethnic insurgencies and brought several armed rebel groups into peace. He was the architect of India’s international cooperation in counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. After retirement from Government service in 2012, he wrote regular columns in national dailies.
He was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the Prime Minister’s Office, whereas as the Head of the Intelligence Community, he coordinated and guided the agencies to meet the National Security needs of the Country.
He was appointed as the Centre’s Interlocutor for the Naga peace talks in August 2014. Within a short time, he could achieve a paradigm shift in the peace process by bringing the issue from abroad to the land and its people and making it truly inclusive by making the genuine stakeholders integral to it. Soon all the rebel armed groups signed agreements for a settlement of the seven decades-old separatist insurgency within the Indian Union and the ambit of the Constitutions of India, which could usher in peace in Nagaland and the rest of North-East India. He was appointed as Deputy National Security Advisor in October 2018.
He served as the Governor of Nagaland from 01st August 2019 till 16th September 2021. He has been appointed as the Governor of Tamil Nadu by the Hon’ble President of India and assumed the office as 26th Governor of Tamil Nadu on 18th September 2021.