Shri Rajnath Singh

Minister of Defence , Government of India & President, MP-IDSA

Shri Rajnath Singh completed his MSc Physics from Gorakhpur University UP. He worked as a lecturer of Physics at K.B. Post-Graduate College Mirzapur, UP. He became the RSS karyavah (General Secretary) of Mirzapur city in 1972. He also remained the organizational secretary of ABVP Gorakhpur division from 1969 to 1971. He entered politics in 1974 and in 1977, he was elected as an MLA in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He was elected MLC for Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in 1988 and became Education Minister in 1991. During his tenure as Education Minister in UP, he established some landmarks by introducing the Anti-Copying Act and Vedic Mathematics in the syllabus. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1994. On November 22, 1999, he became Union Surface Transport Minister. During this period he got the opportunity to initiate the NHDP (National Highway Development Programme), a dream project of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

On October 28, 2000, he became Chief Minister of UP and was twice elected as MLA from Haidargarh constituency in Barabanki. On May 24, 2003, he became Union Minister of Agriculture and subsequently for Food Processing. During this period he initiated a few epoch-making projects like Kisan Call Centre and Farm Income Insurance Scheme. He also embarked on ‘Bharat Suraksha Yatra’ which covered several States taking up the cause of increasing terrorist activities and threats to internal security. He laid emphasis on issues of public interest like spiralling prices of essential commodities, farmers’ grievances and other national issues. He has also written a book on Unemployment its Reasons and Remedies. He became the BJP National President on December 31, 2005, a post he held till December 19, 2009. In May 2009, he was elected MP from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. On May 26, 2014, Shri Rajnath Singh took oath as the Union Minister of India and worked as Union Minister for Home Affairs till 30 May 2019. On May 31, 2019, Shri Rajnath Singh was allocated the portfolio of Union Minister for the Ministry of Defence.

He was elected as the President of MP-IDSA during the 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 08 August, 2019 and re-elected during the 54th AGM held on 06th October, 2021

VK Bhatia

Air Marshal VK ‘Jimmy’ Bhatia was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on May 26, 1962, winning the ‘Chief of the Air Staff Medal’ for standing first in the fighter stream of his course. He has a total of 5,500 hours of flying to his credit, accumulated on approximately 20 types of fighters. While serving as a young Flying Officer, he trained with the US Air Force at Nellis Air Force Base, where he earned the coveted ‘Top Gun’ trophy among other awards while undergoing ‘Combat Crew Training Course’. A Post Graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and the Royal College of Defence Studies, London, UK, he also led an Army/Air Force team to attend the first-ever NBC Warfare Course for officers of the Indian Armed Forces at Timoschenko Academy, Moscow. During his more than 40 years of commissioned service, Air Marshal Bhatia had the unique distinction of being the Commander-in-Chief of the Central, South-Western and Western Air Commands. Air Marshal Bhatia was awarded the Vir Chakra twice, for striking deep into enemy territory during the 1965 and 1971 wars. He is a recipient of the Param Vashisht Seva Medal and Ati Vashisht Seva Medal Presidential awards for distinguished services of the highest order.

Shekhar Sinha

Vice Adm Shekhar Sinha is a former Chief of Integrated Defence Staff. He was a member of the Defence Acquisition Council between 2010 to 2012. Adm. Sinha is a naval aviator of fighter stream and has flown over 2700 hours. Adm. Sinha retired in 2014 as the C-in-C of the Western Naval Command based at Mumbai, with additional responsibility of C-in-C Coastal Security, Western Seaboard. He holds an MSc and MPhil in Defence and Strategic Studies from the University of Madras.

Ashok Sajjanhar

Amb. Ashok Sajjanhar was a career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service and had a distinguished career over three decades. He was the ambassador of India to Kazakhstan, Sweden and Latvia. He negotiated for India in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, for India-EU, India-ASEAN and the India-Thailand Free Trade Agreement. He has worked as the head of National Foundation for Communal Harmony. Amb. Sajjanhar is a strategic expert who writes and speaks on issues relating to international relations and Indian foreign policy.

Rakesh Sharma

Lt Gen (Dr) Rakesh Sharma is a decorated veteran of the Indian Army with a career spanning forty years. He has had extensive operational experience in Jammu and Kashmir, North East and on the Western Borders. The officer was Research Fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. He has a PhD in Defence Studies. Gen Sharma was the Adjutant General of the Indian Army responsible for Human Resource Management and superannuated in 2017. He has been awarded with Param Vashisht Seva Medal, Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, Ati Vashisht Seva Medal and Vashisht Seva Medal.

Tarun Vijay

He is among India’s most prominent journalists, editors and authors, and a former Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). He is one of the longest-serving accredited correspondents of the PIB (Press Information Bureau). He is a regular columnist for several newspapers – The Times of India, Daily Excelsior, Amar Ujala, Jagran, Vijaya Karnataka, Tamil Dinamani, Bengali Swastika, Marathi Tarun Bharat, Punjab Kesari. His views and statements have appeared in Christian Science Monitor, NYT and in Japanese and other foreign papers. He is also a film-maker who has made documentary films and anchored popular shows on All India Radio. He scripted and directed India’s first tele serial on river Indus for Doordarshan. He has written twenty-three books in Hindi, English and translated into several languages including Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada and Mandarin. He worked for The Blitz as a roving tribal correspondent, wrote for The Statesman, Femina, Indian Express, Hindustan Times and The Hindu. He was chief editor of `Panchjanya for two decades. He was member of The Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) appointed by the Government of India. He has been granted USIS’s prestigious MEA Chair of Excellence to write a book on the influence on Indian culture on China. He was the first editor to have a joint media programme for peace with Pakistan’s Daily Jang. He was also the Chief Editor of India’s first magazine on India-Israel relation that was received by the President of India. He was recently conferred the prestigious Hindi Sansthan’s annual national award for journalism and literature for 2019- – Hindi Gaurav Samman. He is the first north Indian to get “Arunthamizh Aarvalar” award from Kamban Kazhagam Academy. As an MP, he was nominated as a member of the parliamentary standing committees on External affairs, Defence and Education. He is Chairman, National Monument Authority.

Jayant Misra

Shri Jayant Misra is an IRS Service officer with a distinguished career spanning over three decades. He is a specialist on non-traditional security threats such as drug trafficking, money laundering and terror financing. He is presently a Consultant Drug Law Enforcement, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – Regional Office South Asia. He has been Member and Chairman, Settlement Commission for Indirect Taxes, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance from 2017-19. During his service he has held high profile assignments including Director General of Revenue Intelligence. He is widely travelled and has participated in several multilateral negotiations. He has extensive administrative, legislative, dispute resolution and intelligence gathering experience. He taught at Allahabad University before joining the Government of India in 1981.

KP Vijayalakshmi

Prof KP Vijayalakshmi is an eminent serving Professor at the JNU at the American Studies in SIS, JNU. She is a well-regarded expert on US Government and Politics, US Foreign policy formulation, patterns and process, Indo-US Relations and Prospects for Scientific Cooperation, US strategies and policies in South Asia, Indian Diaspora, Comprehensive and Non-traditional security. She is a key resource person for the Academic Staff Colleges at various universities, the Army War College, Foreign Services Institute, and Indian Institute of Public Administration (New Delhi) and domain expert to both the print and broadcast media. She is the winner of the prestigious Ford Foundation Faculty Fellowship, Senior Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Salzburg Seminar Fellow, Olive J. Reddick Award, Gilnour Award of the Indian Association of American Studies.

Sujan R. Chinoy

Sujan R. Chinoy is the Director General of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi, since 3 January 2019. A career diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service from 1981 to 2018, he was India’s Ambassador to Japan and the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 2015-2018, and, earlier, the Ambassador to Mexico and High Commissioner to Belize. Click here for detailed profile [+]