Mr Avadhesh Mathur is a distinguished officer of the Indian Police Service (1975 batch, Manipur–Tripura Cadre) with an exceptional career spanning internal security, diplomacy, and strategic governance. He served for over fifteen years each in the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat, and held diplomatic assignments at the Indian Embassies in Belgium and Pakistan.

He retired in 2012 as Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office and subsequently served as the head of the United Nations Mission in North Kosovo (2012–2014). Mr Mathur has been a Member of the National Security Advisory Board in the Prime Minister’s Office for eleven years and served as the Government of India’s Representative and Interlocutor for peace talks with Assam and other Northeast groups (2018–2020).

His core interests include national security issues in India’s neighbourhood—Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and the Maldives—and conflict resolution in India’s Northeast, where he played a key role in political reconciliation and mainstreaming of insurgent groups. He is a recipient of the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service, among several other honours.