Dr. Kiran Bedi

Kiran Bedi has been India’s first and highest woman ranking officer having joined the Indian Police Service in 1972. Her expertise includes more than 35 years of creative and reformative policing and prison management. 

She worked with the United Nations in New York as the Police Advisor to the Secretary General and in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations. She represented India in international forums on crime prevention, drug abuse, police, prison reform and women’s issues. She has addressed audiences at the American, British, European, Indian universities, corporate and civil society groups.

Ms. Bedi is the founder of two NGOs, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation, which reach out to thousands of under -served children, women and men in the areas of education, vocational skills, environment, counseling, and health care to the urban and rural poor, including prisoners and policemen’s children. Currently her NGOs are running community colleges, registered with Indira Gandhi National Open University, to provide vocational and soft skills to Indian youth.

She has been in the vanguard of a nationwide India Against Corruption Movement and Police and Prison Reforms. Ms. Bedi is a recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (also called the Asian Peace Nobel Prize), and several other national and international decorations. 

Ms. Bedi is the author of several books, namely It's Always Possible, What Went Wrong, As I See, Broom and Groom and Uprising 2011, in addition to her biography, I Dare. She anchors radio and television shows as well as she is a columnist with leading newspapers and magazines. 

She holds Masters and Doctorate degrees in Law. She is also a Nehru Fellow (post-doctoral) and has been a National and an Asian tennis champion.