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Ajay Bisaria

Advisor

Ajay Bisaria is a distinguished diplomat, strategic consultant, and commentator on international affairs. With a career spanning 35 years in the Indian Foreign Service, he has played pivotal roles in shaping India’s key economic and security relationships.

Ajay Bisaria is a distinguished diplomat, strategic consultant, and commentator on international affairs. With a career spanning 35 years in the Indian Foreign Service, he has played pivotal roles in shaping India’s key economic and security relationships.

His diplomatic journey includes serving as Indian High Commissioner to Canada (2020-2022), Ambassador to Pakistan (2017-2020), and Ambassador to Poland and Lithuania (2015-2017). Mr. Bisaria has also represented India at the World Bank in Washington DC and in embassies in Berlin and Moscow.

In his diverse career, Amb. Bisaria has held significant positions in the Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Commerce, and the Prime Minister’s Office. As a key aide to Prime Minister Vajpayee from 1999 to 2004, he contributed to shaping India’s foreign policy. His expertise extends to India’s Eurasia policy, including relations with Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia.

A prolific writer and lecturer, Mr. Bisaria focuses on trade, finance, and geopolitics, with particular emphasis on South Asia, Eurasia, Central Asia, and Canada. He has recently authored a series of insightful op-eds on Pakistan in the Times of India.

Areas of
Expertise

FOUNDERS

Dr. Happymon Jacob

Founder & Director

Happymon Jacob is the founder and director of CSDR. He directs CSDR’s research and activities across divisions.

Lt Gen D S Hooda (Retd)

D S Hooda co-founded CSDR and directs projects of its defense and security verticals.

Dr. Gaurav Saini

Gaurav Saini is co-founder of CSDR and leads product design and partnerships.

Team

Afridi Ahmed

Research Intern

Afridi is a research intern at CSDR.

Sukanya Sharma

Research Intern

Sukanya has a Master’s in International History from The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. She has interned at the Nobel-Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Akanksha Baruah

Research Intern

Akansha is a reserach intern at CSDR.

Araudra Singh

Research Intern

Araudra is a Research Intern at CSDR.

Hely Desai

Research Associate

Hely Desai is a nuclear policy expert and Research Fellow at CTBTO, focusing on South Asian nuclear policy. With an MPhil from Cambridge, she has worked at the Centre for Air Power Studies and India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Aersh Danish

Lead – Communications and Outreach

Aersh has over nine years of experience in foreign policy and security studies, research, and strategic communications. At CSDR, Aersh leads the production and dissemination of quality content for CSDR’s various stakeholders.

Experts

Prof. Sumit Ganguly

Distinguished Fellow

Prof. Sumit Ganguly is a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Huntington Program on Strengthening the US-India Relationship at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations Emeritus and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Dr. Iqbal Singh Sevea

Distinguished Fellow

Dr. Sevea is an Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). An internationally recognized scholar of contemporary and modern South Asia, his research focuses on South Asian politics and social and political thought.

Dr. Tishya Khillare

Dr. Tishya Khillare is a Fellow at CSDR. She leads CSDR’s work on Non-traditional Security issues in South Asia and the Indo Pacific, specifically on Climate Diplomacy, South-South and Triangular Cooperation, Feminist Foreign Policy, and Gender and Security.

Atul Chandra

Non-Resident Fellow

Atul is a Non-Resident Fellow at CSDR and supports our work on Aerospace and Defense industry.

Dr. Debak Das

Non-Resident Fellow

Debak is a Non-Resident Fellow at CSDR and supports our work on Nuclear security and international security.

Nihal Krishan

Nihal Krishan is an award-winning journalist and scholar who focuses on the nexus of tech and politics and is a Fellow at CSDR.

IDEAS INSPIRING CHANGE, GLOBAL IMPACT

Our programs encompass an array of critical topics, including climate security, emerging technologies, gender-sensitive foreign policy, non-traditional security, artificial intelligence, Defense and security, Geopolitics, Regionalism, Internet and society, among others.