Maj Gen(Dr) GD Bakshi, SM, VSM(retd) is a combat veteran of many skirmishes on the LC and Counter-Terrorist operations in J&K and Punjab. He commanded his battalion in active operations in Kargil and was awarded the Vishist Seva Medal. Later he commanded a brigade in Counter-Terrorist operations in Kishtwar and was awarded the Sena Medal . He subsequently commanded the Romeo Force during intensive Counter-Terrorist operations in the Rajouri-Punch Districts of J&K . He has served at the highly prestigious Directorate General of Military Operations (during Op Pawan and Op Vijay) . He is a prolific writer on matters military and non-military and has published 40  books and over 200 papers in many prestigious research journals. He taught at the Indian Military Academy Dehradun and the Prestigious Defence Services Staff College at Wellington for three years each. He taught at the National Defense College at New Delhi for two years and retired from this prestigious assignment in Jun2008. He holds a Masters degree in Defence Science and an M Phil in Strategic Studies from the University of Madras. He lserved as Deputy Director Research at the Vivekananda International Foundation. He subsequently took over as the Chief Editor of the Defence and Security Alert magazine. He is currently Editor of Indian Military Review. He appears regularly on all major TV News Channels on the Subjects of terrorism and national security. He lectures frequently at the Army War College , the College of Defense Management ,the College of Materials Management, The National Defence Academy and the National Police Academy. ater completed his Ph.d from the same University on” Limited Wars in South Asia”.

Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia, PVSM, AVSM, SM, (Retd.) superannuated after 40 years of distinguished service in the Army as the Director General Military Operations (DGMO), one of the most important functionaries of the Army. As the DGMO, he was directly responsible for talks with his counterpart in Pakistan to ensure sustained ceasefire. His advisory skills in strategic arena have played an inseparable part in designing and implementing numerous policies for the Indian Army. He was instrumental in giving the much needed focus to capability development and capacity enhancement along our Northern borders and effective management of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the LC.

Rajiv Malhotra was trained initially as a Physicist, and then as a Computer Scientist specializing in Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s. After a successful corporate career in the US, he became an entrepreneur and founded and ran several IT companies in 20 countries. He exited all for-profit activities in the early 1990s. As the founder of his non-profit Infinity Foundation (in Princeton, USA), he has, on a full-time basis, been researching civilizations from a historical, social sciences and mind sciences perspective.He has authored several best-selling books. Infinity Foundation has also published a 14-volume series on the History of Indian Science & Technology. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Center for Indic Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and is on the Advisory Board of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla.

Lieutenant General Vinod G. Khandare, PVSM, AVSM, SM, retired from active military as the Military Advisor to the National Security Council Secretariat of India at the Secretary level from 2018 to 2021. In his final active military appointment, he served as both the Director General of the Defence Intelligence Agency and the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff for Intelligence from November 2015 to January 2018. He commanded his battalion on the Line of Control during OP Vijay and a Division in North Kashmir in 2012-13. As an officer of the Infantry, he was involved in operational tasks in various sectors of Siachen, Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim as well as the North East region.

Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, SM and VSM, was the Chairman of the Cease Fire Monitoring Group in August 2018. He was the Director General of Assam Rifles, India’s oldest and largest Para Military Force. He has had held several key appointments during his long career in the Army. He has served at the Apex level in the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Counter Insurgency, Counter Terrorism, Border Guarding and Human Resource Management. He also has vast experience in military diplomacy since he was the Defence Attaché in the Indian Embassy in Nepal for three and half years (2004- 07).

Major General Rajan Kochhar, VSM, PhD is a former MGAOC Central Command. He has commanded key logistics units of the Indian Army such as Commandant of a Central Ordnance Depot and Divisional Ordnance Units of an Infantry and RAPID divisions. He has done active service in operational areas of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East. He is the recipient of Vishisht Seva Medal awarded by the President of India. He has also been awarded the Army Commanders Commendation twice. He holds a doctorate in Emotional Intelligence and is a certified NLP practitioner coach.

Vice Air Marshal P.K. Srivastava VSM (Retd.) is the former Director (production) of Bharat Dynamics Limited and served as the Head of Flight Systems Business Unit of Larsen & Toubro Limited.He is an alumnus of IIT, Mumbai & Varanasi. He is also an alumnus of FMS, Delhi University. He is an aeronautical engineer with 44+ years of distilled experience. He has worked from tarmac level upwards to tactical and strategic levels and has contributed as thought leader and aviation expert through various national task forces and articles published in prestigious national journals.

Harjit Sandhu is a retired IPS Officer having held leadership positions in the field of law enforcement, counter- terrorism, war crimes, homicide investigations including political assassinations, investigation of financial crimes, financing of terrorism and organised crime including arms trafficking networks. He served as a District Police Chief and was also a Commanding Officer of an armed Battalion engaged with counter-insurgency operations, Superintendent of Police in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and DIG in charge of counter-insurgency operations in Manipur state of India. At international level, he had assignments with Interpol General Secretariat (more than 3 years) and UN Security Council (2 years).

Commodore SL Deshmukh, (Retd) has received Nau sena medal, HE has served in the Indian Navy for 32 years and has held many operational and administrative appointments including Principal Director at Naval HQ, Commodore Superintendent Naval Aircraft Yard, DirectorNaval Institute of Aeronautical Technology and Project Director of a major Naval Aviation Project. He has presented papers at various International Seminars. His many articles have been published by C3SI, DRaS and EJSSS.

Velina Tchakarova is Director at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) in Vienna, Austria. She holds a M.A. in political science/political science of South Asia from the University in Heidelberg, Germany and a B.A. in international relations from the University of World and National Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is an instructor at the Real World Risk Institute by the best-selling author of Black Swan and Antifragility Nassim Taleb and conducts Strategic Foresight for the Austrian Defence Ministry. Her work includes research, consulting and lectures on the global system transformation and geostrategy of global and regional actors, with a special focus on the Dragonbear (China and Russia) and the Indo-Pacific region.

Prof. John M. Nomikos is the Director at the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS), Athens, Greece. He is Chairman, European Intelligence Academy (EIA), Founding Editor, Journal of European and American Intelligence Studies (JEAIS) and Head of the History, Politics and International Relations Department at the Athens Campus of Webster University and an Assistant Professor. He is a Master Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist (CMAS/ATAB/USA). He was awarded the "2019 Life Achievement for the Development of Intelligence Studies in Europe" by the International Association for Intelligence Education - European Chapter (IAFIE -Europe).

Dr. Nanda Kishor M S is an Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies at Pondicherry University. He holds an M.Phil. and PHD. in Political Science from Hyderabad Central University (HCU), Hyderabad, India and completed Postdoc at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, with ERASMUS MUNDUS Fellowship from the European Union. Dr. Kishor was a recipient of the Short-Term Junior Research Fellowship from UNHCR, Brookings, Government of Finland. He is a Senior Fellow at Defence Research and Studies (DRaS) in India, Analyst at Islamic Theology of Counter-Terrorism (London) and Visiting Fellow to AIDIA (Kathmandu).

Professor Srinivasan Barani Balakrishnan is currently the National President of Bharatiya Yuva Seva Sangh. He pursued his additional graduation in Public Administration in University of Madras. He is serving as Adjunct Professor in School of Science, APG Shimla University Himachal Pradesh. He is Honorary Member of International Society of Zoological Science, China and served as Stu Affiliate of Royal Society of Biology (London). He also serves on the advisory board of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), Government of India.