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Dr. Gaurav Saini

Co-Founder

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

Dr. Gaurav Saini is the Co-founder of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research (CSDR), a leading New Delhi think tank focused on foreign policy, defense, and strategic affairs. At CSDR, he leads on project design and implementation, crafting frameworks that explore India’s foreign policy evolution, assess technological impacts on national security, analyze internal security challenges, and examine India’s relations with East Asia, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific. His expertise extends to designing annual geopolitical assessments, scoping defense industry collaborations, facilitating Track 1.5/2 dialogues, and leading multi-stakeholder research programs.

With a PhD in International Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, focusing on India’s strategic culture toward China (1998-2014), Dr. Saini has been an Emerging Quad Think Tank Leader and a European Union exchange fellow.

Dr. Saini has written extensively on global policy debates, addressing themes such as India-Australia defense and security partnerships, Indian foreign policy transitions, the Quad’s strategic resilience, US-India relations amid global shifts, India-Europe defense cooperation, the Global South’s geopolitical rise, India’s counter-terrorism doctrines, India-China dynamics within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, India’s military manufacturing advancements, Brazil-India defense synergies, and China’s engagements in the Indo-Pacific.

Areas of
Expertise

Conflict Resolution

Emerging Technologies Geopolitics

Indian Defense Industry

Indian Foreign Policy

Indo-Pacific

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.

Team

Dr. Sidharth Raimedhi

Sidharth Raimedhi is a Fellow at CSDR. He is the editor-in-chief, and contributor, to the DIPTEL newsletter which covers contemporary Indian foreign policy developments on a weekly basis.

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.

Bashir Ali Abbas

Senior Research Associate

Bashir Ali Abbas is a Research Associate at CSDR.

Devika Makkat

Research Associate

Devika Makkat is Research Associate – Operations at CSDR.the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, New Delhi.

Amen Naithani

Research Associate

Amen is a Research Associate at CSDR and works on projects under the Indo-Pacific and Climate Security and Diplomacy programs.

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.

Experts

Prof. C Raja Mohan

Distinguished Fellow & ROK Chair

C Raja Mohan is a Distinguished Fellow at CSDR and directs CSDR’s Geopolitics and International Security Program. He also holds the Republic of Korea Chair at CSDR, supported by the Korea Foundation.

Rakesh Sood

Distinguished Fellow

Rakesh Sood is a Distinguished Fellow at CSDR and directs the work of CSDR’s Space Technologies and Policy Program.

Ajay Bisaria

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.

Ashok K. Kantha

Distinguished Fellow

Ashok K. Kantha is a distinguished diplomat who served as India’s Ambassador to China (2014-16) and Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs. With over 38 years of diplomatic experience specializing in India’s neighborhood relations, he was India’s lead negotiator for key agreements with China.

VAdm Anil K Chawla (Retd)

Distinguished Fellow

VAdm Anil K Chawla is the former Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command and a Distinguished Fellow at CSDR.

Lt Gen Sanjay Verma (Retd)

Distinguished Fellow

Lt Gen Sanjay Verma (retd) is a Distinguished Fellow at CSDR where he directs CSDR’s work on Indian Defense Industry.

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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.