Lt. Gen. Hooda (Retd) is a Co-founder and Director of the Centre for Defense and Security of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research. Lt. Gen. Hooda was commissioned into the 4th Battalion of the 4th Gorkha Rifles in 1976 and initially served in Nagaland during the peak of insurgency.

Sushant Singh is a Senior Fellow at CPR. He was a lecturer in political science at Yale University (Fall 2019) and the Deputy Editor of The Indian Express, reporting on strategic affairs, national security and international affairs. He won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Prize for Excellence in Journalism for 2017 and 2018.

Dr. Happymon Jacob is the Founder and Honourary Director of the Council for Strategic and Defense Research. Dr Jacob is Associate Professor of Diplomacy and Disarmament at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Yamini Aiyar is the President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research. In 2008, she founded the Accountability Initiative at CPR, which is credited with pioneering one of India’s largest expenditure tracking surveys for elementary education.