Union Home Secretary Shri Govind Mohan graced the 55th Foundation Day celebrations of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) as the Chief Guest in New Delhi. On this occasion, the Union Home Secretary delivered the Dr. Anand Swaroop Gupta Memorial Lecture on the theme “Implementation of New Criminal Laws: Transparency, Technology and Trust.” Union Home Secretary also released BPR&D’s publications namely, National Police Research Repository–Volume III, Directory of Prison Officials in India - 2025, and Compendium of Projects – Volumes VII, VIII and IX (15 projects completed under various Micro Missions, 2021–2025). He also felicitated recipients of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service for 2024 & 2025.

Union Home Secretary, while delivering the Dr. Anand Swaroop Gupta Memorial Lecture, said that in line with SMART Policing vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and under the guidance of Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah, BPR&D remains committed to strengthening India’s police forces. He underlined three critical dimensions of BPR&D’s evolving role: its emergence as a robust think tank addressing complex policing challenges; its leadership in training and capacity building through CDTIs and CAPTs; and its outreach to states to bridge the gap between policy and practice, particularly in monitoring the implementation of the new criminal laws. He noted that BPR&D’s close monitoring of these reforms reflects its transformative role in law enforcement. In his concluding remarks, he emphasised that BPR&D will play the vital role in police reforms by transforming itself into Think Tank organization.  

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Director General of BPR&D, Shri Alok Ranjan reflected on the Bureau’s five-and-a-half decades of service as a think tank for research, police reforms, capacity building and modernisation. He also reiterated BPR&D’s guiding motto “Let noble thoughts come to us from every side”, underlining its mission to collaborate with all the stakeholders for efficient policing system.

BPR&D has identified 155 problem statements by consulting with all the stakeholders and started working on 25 important problem statements for the year 2024-25. Some of the important problem statements include mega event management, developing standards for Model Jail, policy guidelines for counter radicalization and de-radicalization, standardization of training institutes, CCTV related challenges, SOP for coastal policing, indigenization of Police Band Equipment etc. In addition to this, the efforts made by BPR&D in the implementation of the New Criminal Laws, collaboration with the academia and industry, outreach to the stakeholders, impact assessment exercise have been highlighted.

The event reaffirmed BPR&D’s role as a platform for dialogue, collaboration and knowledge-sharing across India’s policing ecosystem.

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RK / VV / RR / PS