Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon was an Indian academic,independence activist,politician,lawyer,and statesman. During his time,Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign relations. He was among the major architects of Indian foreign policy,and acted as Jawaharlal Nehru's diplomat.
Robert Dean Blackwill is a retired American diplomat,author,senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations,and lobbyist. Blackwill served as the United States Ambassador to India under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003 and as United States National Security Council Deputy for Iraq from 2003 to 2004,where he was a liaison between Paul Bremer and Condoleezza Rice.
Jyotindra Nath Dixit was an Indian diplomat,who served as Foreign Secretary (1991–1994),the top bureaucrat in the Ministry of External Affairs. At the time of his death,he was the National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and is mostly remembered for his role as a negotiator in disputes with Pakistan and China.
Rajendra Singh Pawar is an Indian entrepreneur,chairman and co-founder of NIIT Limited,established in 1981. He also founded NIIT University,a not-for-profit university in Neemrana,Rajasthan,in 2009.
The National Security Advisor is the senior official on the National Security Council of India,and the chief advisor to the Prime Minister of India on national security policy and international affairs. In 2019,the term of Ajit Doval the current NSA was extended for another 5-year term,and has been assigned the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister and ranks at the seventh position in the Indian Order of Precedence.
The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is a diplomatic service and a central civil service of the Government of the Republic of India under the Ministry of External Affairs. The Foreign Secretary is the head of the service. Vikram Misri is the 35th and the current Foreign Secretary.
Sir Chettur Sankaran NairCIE was an Indian lawyer and statesman who served as the Advocate-General of Madras from 1906 to 1908,on the High Court of Madras as a puisne justice from 1908 to 1915,and as India-wide Education minister as a member of the Viceroy's Executive Council from 1915 until 1919. He was elected president of the 1897 Indian National Congress,and led the Egmore faction,opposing the Mylapore group.
Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia is an Indian politician who is the 43rd Union Minister of Communications and the 10th Minister of Development of North Eastern Region since 2024. He was a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha representing the state of Madhya Pradesh from 2020 till his win in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He is a Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha,representing the Guna constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2002 until his defeat in the 2019 Indian general election,and then since 4 June 2024. He is a former member of the Indian National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2020 and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020. While a member of the INC,he was the Union Minister for Power and Corporate in the second Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014.
Kumara Padmanabha Sivasankara Menon Sr.CIE ICS,usually known as K. P. S. Menon,was a diplomat and diarist,a career member of the Indian Civil Service. He was appointed independent India's first Foreign Secretary,serving from 1948 to 1952.
Patrick Mendis is an educator,diplomat,author,and executive in government service in the United States. A former American diplomat and military professor during the Clinton,Bush,and Obama administrations,he held various positions in the U.S. Departments of Agriculture,Defense,Energy,and State. He was appointed twice as a commissioner of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO at the State Department by the Obama administration. His appointment to the UNESCO Commission ended during the Trump administration when the White House withdrew from the UN agency.
Brajesh Chandra Mishra was an Indian diplomat from the Indian Foreign Service and politician,best known for serving as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's principal secretary and India's first National Security Advisor from 1998 to 2004. He received Padma Vibhushan for his contributions.
Nirupama Menon Rao is a retired civil servant of 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service cadre who served as India's Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011,as well as being India's Ambassador to the United States,China and Sri Lanka during her career.
The MIT Center for International Studies (CIS) is an academic research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It sponsors work focusing on international relations,security studies,international migration,human rights and justice,political economy and technology policy. The center was founded in 1951.
Parappil-Narayana Menon,also known as P.N. Menon,was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. Like his father-in-law,he undertook an overland journey to Lhasa in 1956,on foot and on horseback through the formidable Nathula Pass,to take up his post as India's Consult-General in Tibet.
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera is a Sri Lankan academic,geopolitics and foreign policy analyst. He is a political columnist and author. He is a visiting professor for geopolitics and global leadership at Northern Kentucky University and a visiting lecturer in International Political Economy for The University of London in Sri Lanka Royal Institute of Colombo and teaches at the International Security at University of Colombo. Abeyagoonasekera has more than a decade of experience in government administration,serving as the head of several government institutions and positions at the board level. His commentaries on International Relations and Geopolitics are published by Observer Research Foundation New Delhi,London School of Economics and South Asia Journal. Abeyagoonasekera writes the monthly column Dateline Colombo for IPCS think tank in New Delhi.
Professor Nalin Mehta is an Indian political scientist,journalist,and writer. His latest book,The New BJP:Modi and the Making of the World's Largest Political Party,has been hailed as a "seminal",non-partisan revisionist account of the rise of the BJP in India.
Ram Chandra Dattatraya Sathe (1923–2008) was Foreign Secretary (India). He served as secretary from 9 November 1979 to 30 April 1982.
The Neighbourhood First policy of India is a core component of India's foreign policy. It focuses on peaceful relations and collaborative,synergetic co-development with its South Asian neighbours of the Indian subcontinent encompassing a diverse range of topics,such as economics,technology,research,education,connectivity,the space program,defence security,and addressing environment and climate challenge. This policy creates new avenues while leveraging to the existing regional cooperation initiatives such as SAARC,SASEC,BBIN,and BIMSTEC. It complements India's Look East policy focused on Southeast Asia and Look West Policy focused on Middle East.
Atul Keshap is a retired American diplomat and career United States Foreign Service Officer from Virginia who serves at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as the President of the U.S.- India Business Council since January 2022. He also serves as Senior Vice President for South Asia and as President of the U.S.-Bangladesh Business Council. Previously,he served as the Chargéd'affaires of the United States mission to India in 2021. He formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the United States Department of State. In 2022,Ambassador Keshap was elected into membership of the American Academy of Diplomacy. In May 2023,Keshap was named one of Washington's most influential foreign policy influencers for his work to shape U.S. relations with India.
Vikram Misri is an Indian diplomat. He currently serves as the 35th Foreign Secretary of India from July 2024 onwards. Previously,he served as the Deputy National Security Advisor of India from 1 January 2022,succeeding Pankaj Saran till 14 July 2024. Whereas,he has served as the ambassador of India to China from January 2019 to December 2021.
