Meet Kuhoo Garg: From International Badminton Player to IPS Officer

Hyderabad, 17 October 2026 — Kuhoo Garg, a 2024-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, has completed her training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) as one of the standout probationers of the 78th Regular Recruit batch. Her journey from international badminton courts to the police academy offers a clear example of discipline, resilience, and purposeful redirection after injury.

Born on 22 September 1998 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, Garg is the daughter of Ashok Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre who served as the state’s Director General of Police from November 2020 to November 2023. He is currently Vice-Chancellor of the Sports University of Haryana. Her mother, Dr Alaknanda Ashok, is an academic who has served as Dean at the College of Technology, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. The family’s frequent transfers shaped her early schooling, which included St Joseph’s / St Thomas institutions in Dehradun and Sanskriti School in Delhi. She graduated in 2018 with a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi.

Garg began playing badminton at the age of nine or ten, encouraged by both parents. She trained under Dr D.K. Sen and later at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad. Between 2013 and 2020 she represented India, competing in women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Her highest world ranking was No. 34 in mixed doubles (September 2018); she also reached No. 73 in women’s doubles. She was ranked India’s No. 1 in mixed doubles at stages of her career. Notable results include a gold medal at the 2019 South Asian Games, a silver at the 2019 National Championship, a bronze in women’s doubles at the South Asian Games, and a quarter-final appearance at the 2018 World Championships. She accumulated multiple national and international medals across BWF International Challenge and Series events.

A serious ACL knee injury that required surgery and roughly a year of bed rest, followed by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought her competitive career to an end. During recovery she turned to the civil services. She prepared intensively, often studying eight to ten hours a day, and cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2023 with All India Rank 178 on her first serious attempt. She chose the Indian Police Service. Her father has noted that she is the first active Team India player to clear the examination in the open category while still competing.

Allocated the Gujarat cadre (IPS ID 20241049), she joined the service on 26 August 2024 and entered the 78 RR batch at SVPNPA. During Phase I training she was awarded the Medal for Best Probationer in Drill. Contemporary reports and statements from senior officers also identify her as the best outdoor probationer, recognising performance across physical training, horse riding, unarmed combat, yoga, tactics, mock drills, and sports. She is set to receive the IPS Association’s Sword of Honour at the batch’s Dikshant (Passing Out) Parade. Garg has attributed her results at the academy to habits formed as an athlete: “Once an athlete, always an athlete. The discipline, resilience, strategising and the need to always get better and push yourself — all of that stays with you.”

After completing academy training and subsequent field attachments, she will take up policing duties in Gujarat. Her path illustrates how the same qualities that sustain elite sport—consistent effort, recovery from setback, and strategic focus—transfer directly into the demands of police training and public service.