FIIDS Expert Fellows:
Vice Admiral Sekhar Sinha has served in a variety of Command, Staff, and Instructional appointments during his long and distinguished services. In 1974, Vice Admiral Sinha was commissioned, in the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy as a fighter pilot. Alongside, he took over as the Chief of Integrated Defense Staff to Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC).
He is an alumnus of Defense Services Staff College, the College of Naval Warfare, Mumbai. Vice Admiral Sinha has been decorated with Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM), Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), Nau Sena Medal (NM). He is also a qualified flying instructor and has over 2700 hours of flying experience on 18 different types of aircraft. Some of his sea commands include ICGS Ranijindan, INS Saryu, INS Shakti, and INS Delhi.
Ambassador Virendra Gupta: International Affairs – Foreign Policy
Ambassador Virendra Gupta served for around 37 years with the Indian Foreign Service and retired as a diplomat in 2016. He served as India’s High Commissioner in Tanzania, Trinidad, Tobago, and South Africa. He has also served as the Deputy Director-General of India’s largest security studies think tank, Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), and as the Director-General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
Currently, Ambassador Virendra Gupta is associated with a number of non-governmental organizations and think tanks and is passionate about international relations and public policy issues. As president of NGO ‘Antar Rashtriya Sahyog Parishad,’ he is focused on Indian diaspora and neighborhood issues.
He has also been writing about various issues in a variety of newspapers and magazines. He has also edited several books including Pakistan Occupied Kashmir – Untold Story, India’s Neighborhood – Challenges Ahead, and Energy Security: Asia Pacific Perspectives, and also has contributed chapters in various books, including The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in India’s Foreign Policy.
Alok Bansal, is the director of the India Foundation and has also been the Executive Director of the South Asian Institute for Strategic Affairs (SAISA), Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), and has worked with the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and the Center for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS). In addition, he has authored the book Balochistan in Turmoil: Pakistan at CrossRoads, in 2009, and has co-edited several other books.
Dr. Baltej Singh Mann has a master’s and Ph.D. Economics. He has delivered guest lectures on the theme of International Economics, Sikhism, and indo-Pak Relations. As a deputy leader of Punjabi University educational delegation of the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK in 2005-6, he mobilized a donation of more than one million USD for the Golden Heart Scholarship Project which proved a milestone in reaching the unreachable in educationally backward rural areas of Punjab.
He held several positions including Chair Professor of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur National Integration Chair; the Dean of Resource Mobilization and Advancement (RMA), Director of National Service Scheme (NSS), and the university Enquiry and Information Center (UEIC) at Punjabi University. Dr. Baltej Singh Mann then joined as a Member of the National Commission for Minority Education Institutions (NCMEI) in the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). He is also the Visiting Professor at San Jose State University and at Concordia University.
In addition, Dr. Baltej Singh has visited Pakistan and Nepal as a member of the Indian South Asian Fraternity (SAF) delegation to strengthen people-to-people relationships and has been instrumental in promoting cooperative agreements with foreign Universities in the USA, Canada, and Germany. On the academic side, his main interests are in National Integration, Monetary and Industrial Economics, and Global and Diaspora studies. Some of his published works include Economic Development of Scheduled Castes, Working of Industrial Estates, National Integration & Communal Harmony, and South Asian Spectrum.