Air Marshal Anil Khosla, PVSM, AVSM, VM, (Retd) is a former Vice Chief of Air Staff (VCAS), Indian Air Force. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the fighter stream of Indian Air Force with an experience on both Ground attack and Air Defence roles with specialization on maritime role. He is a post graduate from Defence Services Staff College. He is an A2 category flying instructor and a fighter strike leader. He has had the distinction of standing first in the order of merit in all the attended courses (i.e., Flying Instructor Course, Fighter Strike Leaders Course, Junior Command Course and Staff Course). While in Service he handled DOKLAM operation with China and BALAKOT strike against Pakistan. He is also associated with formulation of Air Force War Plans, Force structure planning and capability building. He pursued MPhil in Defence and Strategic studies and has a PhD on China. He is a Distinguished Fellow at USI and at the Centre of Air Power Studies (CAPS). He is also on the editorial board of College of Air Warfare Journal. He has worked with several think tanks and organisations.

Ambassador Asoke Mukerji retired as India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York in December 2015. In July 2018, he was awarded a Doctor of Civil Laws (honoriscausa) degree by the University of East Anglia (UK). His book “India and the United Nations: A Photo Journey 1945-2015” was presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. He writes and lectures on diplomacy, geo-strategy, and cyber issues. He was an elected USI Council member (2017-2019), and is currently a Distinguished Fellow of USI, the Vivekananda International Foundation, and the Geneva/Malta-based Diplo Foundation.

Mr. Jitesh Khosla is a retired IAS officer and a former Chief Secretary, Assam. During his service he held many positions relating to infrastructure development in Assam and also dealt with many situations concerning internal security, insurgency and terrorism in the North East. As Chief Secretary, he was the Chairman of the Strategy Group set up to facilitate the functioning of the Joint Civil-Military Command in Assam. Post retirement, he is actively engaged on security issues in the North East. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the USI. He is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Administration and the National Award for e-Governance 2007-2008 among others.

Dr. Sanjeev Chopra holds a PhD in Management, besides degrees in Law, History and Literature. He is the recipient of the Robert S McNamara Fellowship of the World Bank and the Hubert H Humphrey Fellowship at the University of Cornell. He was a Guest Scholar at The Brookings Institution, Washington DC. He has written extensively on policy issues in governance and development interventions in rural development, agriculture, marketing reforms, co-operatives, and farmer organizations. He has been invited to deliver lectures and talks at IIMs, ASCI, FRI, IGNFA and at symposia and conferences across the country. He has also delivered keynotes at International Cooperative Alliance conferences at Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Ho Chi Minh City. He has several books to his credit, including ‘At the Crossroads: Development Discourses in India’, ‘Agri-Matters’, ‘Ten Thousand Crores’, besides three edited volumes on Policy Colloquia on Co-operatives in the SAARC Region, and articles in leading papers like E.P.W, Mainstream, Frontier, Encounter, Millennium Post, Garhwal Postetal. He curates a Literature and Arts festival, ‘Valley of Words’ at Dehradun in November every year..

Tilak Devasher retired as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in October 2014. Tilak Devasher is the author of three widely acclaimed books on Pakistan: ‘Pakistan: Courting the Abyss’ (December 2016); ‘Pakistan: At the Helm’ (July 2018) and ‘Pakistan: The Balochistan Conundrum’ (July 2019). He has also edited two books for the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) titled ‘Pakistan Insights 2019’ and ‘Pakistan Insights 2020’. He is Member, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), Consultant, Vivekananda International Foundation, and Emeritus Resource Faculty at Rashtriya Raksha University. Currently, he is a Distinguished Fellow at United Service Institution of India.

Professor Bharat Karnad is Emeritus Professor for National Security Studies at the Centre for Policy Research and a Distinguished Fellow at USI. He is the author of many books, including ‘Staggering Forward: Narendra Modi and India’s Global Ambition’ (2018), ‘Why India is Not a Great Power (Yet)’, 2015, ‘India’s Nuclear Policy’ (2008), and ‘Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security’ (2005, 2002) now in its 2nd edition. He was Member of the (First) National Security Advisory Board and Member of the Nuclear Doctrine-drafting Group, and Adviser, Defence Expenditure, (Tenth) Finance Commission, India. He founded and conducted for many years the Strategic Nuclear Orientation Course for the Defence Ministry for Brigadier/Major General-rank military officers and designed and conducted the first inter agency war game on the nuclear tripwire in 2003 (at the Army War College). He is invited to lecture at the top military training institutions.

Major Sushil Goel (Retd) is currently the CMD of P C Training Institute Limited, a multi-vertical flagship Company in the field of Education, Training, Skill Development, Assessment, Healthcare and Veteran Care . He has 49 years of work experience. He has served in the Army Ordnance Corps as a Major. He has also worked as a Business Development Advisor with Eicher Group, Fujitsu ICIM, Sun and Sun Inc, USA, TGK, Japan.

He has held important positions including as a National Secretary, Projects and Membership Development and Chief Technology Officer, Public Police, CTO and Global Administrator for Technology, World Constitution and Parliament Association and member of the Academic Board of Mahrishi Dayanand University, Rohtak; Sikkim Manipal University, Manipal and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal; and Karnataka State Open University (KSOU). He is also a DTE of distance education, MDU and senior consultant, SOCS, IGNOU.

He has many accomplishments to his name, mainly pioneering the concept of computer education to the common man, introducing the blended/ hybrid mode of teaching, Successfully leading the implementation of several Skill Development Projects sanctioned by Central / State Governments among others. Importantly, he is the pioneer of the concept of JanMitr, a social Project to provide support to the society by enabling the needy to avail the required services and products in the field of healthcare and education and veteran care in both urban and rural areas and also empower the youth and unemployed to become employable and self-sustained entrepreneur.

Col Sanjeev Relia (Retd) served for over thirty-two years in the Corps of Signals, Indian Army. During this period, he gained expertise in the field of telecommunication, establishment of voice and data networks and cyber security in the Indian Army. Post superannuation, he has been working in the cooperate world as Senior Advisor, Cyber Security and is presently associated with two different companies. Since, September 2019 have been working as a consultant/ advisor with two different companies on issues pertaining to Cyber Security and have been rendering useful advice on implementation of cyber security projects and training on cyber security awareness. He is pursuing his PhD, on India’s Cyber Security Challenges at AMET University. Currently, he is a Visiting Fellow at United Service Institution of India.

Col (Dr) KK Sharma (Retd) served in Army Air Defence in various locations including the Glaciers, and retired from the position of Chief Instructor, Tactical and Combat Wing, Army Air Defence College. He is a Professor and Dean in Global Education Programs, Chitkara University. He is an OB and HR student, with an experience in leadership positions in the Indian Army, UN Peace Operations and with the UNHCR. His academic teaching and research experience spans from 1985, till now, in multiple positions at national and global levels. Further, he has a PhD in Management (Zurich) and he has also done his MBA (HRM). He has authored six books, 26 research papers and presented papers in many national and international seminars and conferences. Presently, he is a Visiting Fellow at United Service Institution of India.

Dr. Jagannath Panda is a Senior Fellow at the United Services Institution of India (USI). Currently, Dr. Panda is based in Stockholm, and is the Head of Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden. In addition to his primary appointment at ISDP, Dr. Panda is also the Director for Europe-Asia Research Cooperation at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS); International Research Fellow at the Cannon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Japan; a Senior Fellow at East Asian Security Centre at Bond University, Australia; and a Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (JFSS), Tokyo. He was a fellow at India’s premier think-tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (now, Manohar Parrikar-IDSA) for one and half-decade [2006-2022]. As a senior expert on Indo-Pacific affairs, Dr. Panda’s research focuses primarily on India’s relations with Indo-Pacific powers (China, Japan, Korea, USA); EU-India Relations; and EU’s infrastructure, connectivity and maritime initiatives in Indo-Pacific. He is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia, and also the Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Asian Public Policy (JAPP: Routledge). Dr. Panda has a monthly column as “Asia’s Next Page” with Japan Forward, and is a keen follower of Chinese, Japanese and Korean affairs. He has been a Korea Foundation (2018) and Japan Foundation fellow (2018). He frequently writes for The National Interest, China Brief (Jamestown Foundation), The Diplomat, 38 North (Stimson Centre), Asia Times, The Japan Times, The Diplomat, South Asian Voices and many other international forums. Dr. Panda is the author of the book India-China Relations (Routledge: 2017) and China’s Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition (IDSA & Pentagon Press: 2010). His recent work includes Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific (Routledge: 2021); Scaling India-Japan Cooperation in Indo-Pacific and Beyond 2025 (KW Publishing Ltd. 2019), and The Korean Peninsula and Indo-Pacific Power Politics: Status Security at Stake (Routledge, 2020), India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity (Routledge: 2022), and the Future of Korean Peninsula: Korea 2032 and Beyond (Routledge: 2021).

Dr Tricia Bacon, PhD. is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulation (CS3) in United Service Institution of India, New Delhi. She is an Associate Professor at the American University’s School of Public Affairs. She directs the Policy Anti-Terrorism Hub at the American University. Prior to her employment at the American University, Dr. Bacon worked on counterterrorism for over ten years at the Department of State, including in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of Counterterrorism, and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Dr. Bacon is a non-resident fellow with George Washington University’s Program on Extremism and an associate fellow with the International Centre for Counter-terrorism. She serves in the Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program Advisory Council for the Middle East Institute and the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Terrorism and Political Violence. Her research focuses on behavior of terrorist and insurgent groups’ and decision-making, U.S. counterterrorism policy, and in the role of intelligence in national security decision-making. She recently published an article discussing a peace deal between the Taliban and the United States.

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Major General Jagatbir Singh was commissioned into 18 Cavalry in December 1981 a Regiment which he subsequently commanded. He is a second generation officer and is an alumnus of Doon School, Dehra Dun and St Stephens College, Delhi. During his 38 years of service in the Army he has held various command, staff and instructional appointments and served in varied terrains in the country. He has served in a United Nations Peace Keeping Mission as a Military Observer in Iraq and Kuwait in the period between the two Gulf Wars. He has served as a Brigade Major of a Mountain Brigade which was actively involved in insurgency operations in the North East, served in the Military Secretary’s Branch in Army Headquarters dealing with career management of officers and been a Director of Tri Services Institutes at Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff amongst his staff appointments and headed a project seeing to the implementation of a Command Decision Support System. He has also been posted to Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun as a Platoon Commander and served two tenures; one as an Instructor and one as a Senior Instructor in the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He retired in February 2018 as the Director General Resettlement under the Ministry of Defence. He is a prolific writer in defence & national security and adept at public speaking.

Pradeep Kumar Gautam, has contributed towards the study and contemporary relevance of Indigenous Historical Knowledge as it pertains to strategic thinking and security studies. He has presented papers on Kautilya’s Arthashastra at Global International Studies Conferences in Germany (2014) and Taiwan (2017). He has given presentations and lectures on Kautilya at the Indian Institute for Advanced Study, Shimla, Army War College, the Indian National Defence University under the aegis of HQ IDS and other academic institutes/colleges/think tanks. Since 2013 till date, he gives presentations on Kautilya and its various facets at strategic orientation capsules conducted by IDSA for IFS probationers, BSF, IAF Officers nominated to go abroad for Staff college course, NTRO, DGOF, ITBP etc. He is also a resource person for the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi where he has given presentations on Kautilya/Strategic culture to foreign diplomats posted at New Delhi and to the certificate course conducted by VIF on Indian strategic thought. Related to the Indian heritage, he has authored a number of journal articles, three monographs on Kautilya’s Arthashastra and one on Kamandaka’s Nitishastra. His monograph Hundred Years of Kautilya’s Arthshastra has been included in the syllabus of Delhi University MA Political Science course from academic year 2019. He has five chapters on or related to Kautilya’s Arthashastra in four edited volumes of which he is also the co-editor of the trilogy Indigenous Historical Knowledge: Kautilya and His Vocabulary, Volumes I, II and III (20015/2016). His present research interest is the Kural composed by Tiruvalluvar. A monograph on the same is forthcoming. The author in early 20th century began his research career at the USI of India through the DRDO chair which was published as Environmental Security: Internal and External Dimensions and Response (2003). His other abiding interest and published work is on subjects like nontraditional security/water/climate change , military matters and history, and Tibet. Sample published work and lectures related to Indigenous Historical Knowledge is at Appendix.