Madhu Bhalla, is Professor at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi. Her areas of interest are: China’s foreign policy, security policy and political economy. She has participated and presented papers in several national and international conferences. 

Vivek Bharati is Executive Director for External Affairs at PepsiCo India. Prior to this, he was advisor for national policy and programmes at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). 

Ravi Bhoothalingam studied Experimental Psychology at Cambridge University, UK. After holding senior positions in industry in India and overseas, he now serves on several company boards and travels extensively in China and Mongolia to promote cultural and business ties. 

Sreemati Chakrabarti is Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. She has done her MA in Regional Studies-East Asia from Harvard University and PhD on ‘Perceptions of China and Naxalite Ideology’ from Columbia University. Her publications include China and the Naxalites (1990), Mao, China’s Intellectuals and Cultural Revolution (1998) and Introducing China (1995), as well as numerous articles and research papers on aspects of modern Chinese politics. Currently she is working on China’s education.

Ajish P. Joy is Assistant Editor, The Week. Prior to this, he worked with Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi. He completed his PhD from the School of International Relations, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has published a book, India, Central Asia and Russia: Potential for Regional Co-operation (2007). He has also contributed chapters and articles in edited books and journals.

Rajiv Kumar is Secretary General, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He is a well known economist and the author of several books. Prior to FICCI, he was Director & Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He is also a member of the International Advisory Council of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies & Research Centre (KAPSARC), Riyadh. Dr Kumar was a member of the National Security Advisory Board (2006-2008) as well as a non-executive Director on the Central Board of the State Bank of India for three years ending September 2011. From 1987-1989, he was a Professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade; subsequently, he worked for the Government of India from 1989 to 1995, first in the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, Ministry of Industry and then as Economic Adviser in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. In 1995, Dr Kumar joined the Asian Development Bank in Manila and assumed several positions during his 10-year term. In 2004, he joined the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), New Delhi as Chief Economist. He has a DPhil in Economics from Oxford University and a PhD from Lucknow University. He is a columnist in leading business dailies. 

Dilip Lahiri is a Visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and a former Indian diplomat, with long and diversified experience in international relations in the Indian Foreign Service. His postings outside India were as Ambassador to France, Spain, Peru and Bolivia; he has worked and toured in many countries in South East and East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the US and Europe, Central America, the Pacific islands and the Caribbean. He was also Dean of the Indian Diplomatic School. Ambassador Lahiri led the Indian delegation to the Rome conference on the International Criminal Court, was a member of the Indian delegation to the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change, attended several sessions of the UN General Assembly, and has been involved for many years in the negotiations on the restructuring of the UN and expansion of the Security Council, in the UN Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Disarmament. He has spoken at several international seminars and published articles in journals and newspapers on Indian nuclear and security policy, and organised and edited a two-volume compilation on Indian Foreign Policy: An Agenda for the Twenty First Century and a Spanish language book of essays by Spanish and Indian experts titled India and Spain: 2000 Years of Interaction. 

Smita Purushottam is Indian Ambassador to Venezuela. She was Senior Fellow at the Institute of Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. She had previously served as Joint Secretary at the Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Joint Secretary in the Integrated Defence Staff Headquarters in the Ministry of Defence; Director/Under Secretary (East Europe/Soviet Union) and SAARC, and Under Secretary (Bhutan) in MEA. She has served in India’s missions abroad, as Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy of India in Berlin, Minister (Political) at the High Commission of India, London, Counsellor for economic and commercial affairs at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, at the Embassy in Brussels, and the Embassy of India, Moscow. She spent a year as Fellow at Harvard where she prepared a paper ‘Can India Overtake China?’ (2001).

P.S. Ramakrishnan is a Professor and Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Honorary Senior Scientist at School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He contributed a paper, ‘Coping with Environmental Uncertainties to Climate Change from a Developing Country Socio-ecological System Perspective’, to the Report on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that won the 2007 Noble Peace Prize.

B. Raman is an expert on security and anti-terrorism operations. He is a former Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, of the Government of India and former head of the counter-terrorism division of India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He has been a member of various special task forces related to security and intelligence issues. An internationally acclaimed writer and lecturer, he regularly contributes articles to various national and international publications on security-related topics. He is currently the director of the Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai. Raman is also a contributor to the South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG). 

Angira Sen Sarma is a Research Fellow at Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). Her primary area of research is Central Asia. She has authored a book, India and Central Asia: Redefining Energy and Trade Links, and has also contributed chapters in edited volumes. She has presented papers in many national and international conferences/seminars. Before joining ICWA, she worked with Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi from 2006-2011. She completed her PhD from School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Nandan Unnikrishnan is a Vice President at ORF’s Centre for International Relations. He looks after the US Studies Programme and the Eurasian Studies Programme. An alumni of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), he began his career as a journalist with the Press Trust of India (PTI). His articles, primarily on international affairs, have appeared in many Indian publications. During his tenure at ORF, Nandan has participated in several national and international conferences, lectured in various academic and specialised institutions in India and abroad. 

H.H.S. Viswanathan, is a Distinguished Fellow at ORF’s Centre for International Relations. He was a member of the Indian Foreign Service and his foreign assignments include Belgium, Zaire, Czechoslovakia, Germany, China, Italy, Cote d’ Ivoire, USA and Nigeria. He was the Head of Mission (Ambassador/High Commissioner) in Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria with concurrent accreditation to Niger, Guinea (Conakry), Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Benin, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. He has been Deputy Secretary (East Europe) and Joint Secretary (Administration) in the Ministry for External Affairs. He represented India in the African Development Bank (AfDB), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). He was also Observer at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He has participated in several conferences/seminars/workshops in UC, Berkley, UCLA, Stanford University, CSU, Riverside, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and University of Sienna (Italy).