<p>The strategic partnership between India and Russia was signed during the visit of President Putin to India in the year 2000. Since then, the Indo-Russian&nbsp;</p> <p>relationship has diversified enormously and today it is uniquely strong and also expanding in the areas of defence, nuclear energy, hydrocarbons, space&nbsp;</p> <p>research and in science &amp; technology. This relationship is based on a strong national consensus in both countries that has cut across ideologies or&nbsp;</p> <p>political differences. Although differences arise over certain issues on certain occasions, the overall parallelism in the Indo-Russian relationship definitely&nbsp;</p> <p>symbolises the trust that still exists between them.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>India and Russia have now reached a stage where the economies of both the countries are resurgent and at the same time diversifying. Both economies&nbsp;</p> <p>are developing significantly to provide a good base for expanding business contacts and promoting new projects. Nonetheless, in spite of accelerated&nbsp;</p> <p>growth and immense opportunities, statistics show that business transaction is much less than the potential which exists between them. On the whole,&nbsp;</p> <p>it is necessary to publicise the positive experiences and growth of both countries, which will help people in both countries to orient themselves to the&nbsp;</p> <p>present realities and will boost bilateral cooperation in various fields.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>With these aspects as a backdrop, this book India-Russia Strategic Partnership: Challenges and Prospects has been conceived. This book is an outcome of&nbsp;</p> <p>the research papers presented during the conference held at Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, along with the Moscow State Institute of&nbsp;</p> <p>International Relations. The book covers a wide spectrum of issues and concerns related to India-Russia Strategic Partnership, and outlines various&nbsp;</p> <p>challenges and prospects for developing this relationship further. An attempt has been made here to contextualise the debate in a more cogent form.</p>

<p><strong>Nivedita Das Kundu </strong>(Ph.D.) is a Research Fellow, at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New Delhi. Earlier she worked as an Associate Fellow&nbsp;</p> <p>with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and as a Fellow with Department of Science &amp; Technology (DST), New Delhi. She has also&nbsp;</p> <p>taught in the University of Helsinki (Finland) and in the University of Hannover (Germany).</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>She has received her Doctorate from School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research interest includes: geopolitical&nbsp;</p> <p>issues, foreign policy and strategic dimensions of security with focus on Russia and the former Soviet States, including Afghanistan and multilateral&nbsp;</p> <p>organisations like SCO, BRIC, CSTO, NATO and EU. She has contributed widely on these research areas nationally and internationally. She has authored&nbsp;</p> <p>a book on Russia and it's Near Abroad: Strategic Dynamics and Implications and edited books on Russia-India-China: Evolution of Geopolitical Strategic&nbsp;</p> <p>Trends.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>She has published articles in various national and international journals, in edited books, in newspapers and in websites. She has also written policy&nbsp;</p> <p>briefs, issue briefs and occasional papers on her subject of expertise. She is also a recipient of number of prestigious national as well as international&nbsp;</p> <p>fellowships including DAAD (Germany), CIMO (EU), RAS (Russia), ICSSR (India) and Post-Doctoral Fellow Woodrow Wilson Center (US).</p>

<p><strong>G. Balachandran </strong>is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and Research Consultant at National Maritime Foundation. He is&nbsp;</p> <p>Ph.D. from the University of Wisonsin, Meadison, USA. He is a specialist on nuclear energy issues and expert on India’s defence expenditure.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Rahul K. Bhonsle </strong>(Brig.), a military veteran with over three decades of active service, is now pursuing a second career in research at an independent&nbsp;</p> <p>agency, Sasia Security-Risks. His areas of interest include future warfare and human security. He is a regular contributor to leading mainstream and&nbsp;</p> <p>professional newspapers, websites and journals and edits a monthly, South Asia Security Trends. He is presently working on Net Assessment of the&nbsp;</p> <p>Indian Armed Forces.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Lounev Sergey Ivanovich </strong>(Ph.D.) is Professor at the Department of Oriental Studies and also at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations. He has&nbsp;</p> <p>also worked as a Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of World Economics and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences. He has to his&nbsp;</p> <p>credit 192 published works, including 11 monographs.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Ajey Lele</strong> (Ph.D.) is an Indian Air Force officer (Wing Commander) and is working as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and&nbsp;</p> <p>Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. He works on issues related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and strategic technologies with a major focus on space&nbsp;</p> <p>security. He is a postgraduate in Physics (Pune University) and has also done his M.Sc. and M.Phil. in Defence and Strategic Studies from Madras&nbsp;</p> <p>University. He has obtained his doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He has published articles in journals, websites and&nbsp;</p> <p>newspapers. He has authored two books titled: Bio-Weapons: The Genie in the Bottle and Weather and Warfare.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Gulshan Sachdeva </strong>(Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University,&nbsp;</p> <p>New Delhi. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Trento (Italy). His area of expertise is Russia and Central Asia (economic transformation), South&nbsp;</p> <p>Asia (Indian economy and foreign policy, SAARC), Europe, and Afghanistan (security, development, regional cooperation). Works mainly in the areas of&nbsp;</p> <p>macroeconomic policy reforms, regional economic integration, foreign policy and foreign economic relations, public sector reforms, privatisation and&nbsp;</p> <p>private sector development, economic policy formulation for conflict and post-conflict areas, civil service capacity development and training.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Arun Sahgal </strong>(Brig.) is Head, Center for Strategic Studies and Simulation, and Deputy Director Research, United Service Institution of India. In a career&nbsp;</p> <p>spanning over 36 years in the Indian army, he held number of important command, staff and instructional appointments. His most distinctive service&nbsp;</p> <p>assignment has been the Founder Director of the Office of Net Assessment, Integrated Defense Staff (Ministry of Defence)—an office, created to&nbsp;</p> <p>undertake long-term strategic assessments, to assist in national security planning and development of future military capabilities. His academic pursuits&nbsp;</p> <p>include Senior Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses and Distinguished Fellow, School of Geo-Politics, Manipal Academy of Higher&nbsp;</p> <p>Education. He recently completed a major Net Assessment study on India-China Military Balance 2025, for the Indian Joint Staff, and drafted India’s&nbsp;</p> <p>National Security Strategy. He is independent consultant with Jane’s Information Group and Booze Allen and Hamilton. He is a member of National Task&nbsp;</p> <p>Force on Net Assessment and Simulation under the National Security Council, Government of India.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><br /> <strong>Devika Sharma </strong>is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Research on Energy Security at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi. She&nbsp;</p> <p>submitted her doctoral thesis at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from where she did her M.Phil. and M.A. in International Relations. Before&nbsp;</p> <p>joining TERI, she was with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Dmitri V. Streltsov </strong>(Ph.D.) is Professor Head of Eastern Studies Chair, Moscow State Institute for International Relations, Moscow. He is also a leading&nbsp;</p> <p>research fellow of the Center of Japanese Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interest includes the&nbsp;</p> <p>internal political situation and foreign policy of Japan, Russo-Japanese relations and the problems of security in North-East Asia.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Ivan Timofeev </strong>(Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor and Chief Executive of the Centre for Analytical Monitoring, State Institute for International Relations,&nbsp;</p> <p>Moscow. He has 4 monographs and 30 research articles to his credit.</p>