Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Rakesh Sharma, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd.) is a distinguished Indian Army veteran whose four-decade career was defined by operational leadership in high-altitude warfare, institutional reform, and strategic foresight. Commissioned into the Gorkha Rifles in 1977, he commanded the Fire and Fury Corps in Ladakh and later served as the Adjutant General of the Indian Army, overseeing human resource management and welfare for the entire force.

His operational acumen and deep understanding of frontier security were further honed during his tenure as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), where he earned a PhD in Defence Studies.

Since retiring in 2017, Lt. Gen. Sharma has emerged as one of India's foremost military strategists and mentors. He is the author of two influential books — The Determinants of India's National Military Strategy (2021) and War is a True Chameleon: Strategising for Future Wars in the Indian Context (2026).

As a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) and the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), he regularly advises policymakers, mentors young strategists, and contributes to national security discourse — bridging operational experience with academic rigor on the employment of advanced and strategic weapons in future conflicts.

Rear Admiral Iqbal Singh Grewal (Retd.) is a highly accomplished naval engineer and defence strategist whose 35-year career in the Indian Navy spanned operational engineering, institutional transformation, and strategic shipbuilding policy at the highest levels of the Maritime Services.

As Deputy Director General (Technical) at Project Seabird, he directed ₹8,000 crore in marine infrastructure development including the critical Pier 5 for aircraft carriers, and pioneered the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) for INS Vikrant and ASW Corvettes, establishing himself as a systems integrator of the first order.

As Assistant Chief of Materiel, he spearheaded the Indian Navy's landmark Indigenisation Plan 2047, progressing 52 contracts worth ₹1,265 crore and 70 innovation projects worth ₹2,538 crore.

Since retirement, as Additional Director General Quality Assurance (Warship Projects) at the Ministry of Defence, he spearheaded QA 4.0 — a comprehensive digital transformation initiative deploying AI-based drawing approvals and remote inspection technologies to shift the regulatory paradigm from "inspection" to "enablement."

He authored the Comprehensive QA Compendium (QAD-R03), establishing a unified regulatory framework for India's defence industry. As Chairman of the Policy Management Committee for the Defence Testing and Inspection Services (DTIS), he oversaw transition of state-of-the-art testing laboratories to operational status. He conducted pan-India capability assessments that successfully qualified 36 foundries, resolving critical sub-vendor bottlenecks for marine castings.

. As Chairman of the High-Powered Steering Committee for iDEX, he mentored over 300 startups and spearheaded 184 technology challenges, embedding innovation directly into India's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" framework. A registered Independent Director with the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), he holds Master's degrees in Software Systems, Defence & Strategic Studies, and Socio-Legal Science, positioning him as a sought-after strategic advisor on defence acquisition, shipbuilding policy, and quality transformation.

Rear Admiral Iqbal Singh Grewal retired from the Indian Navy in April 2026 after thirty-five years as a marine engineer. He has worked all three sides of the defence-acquisition triangle, as the user in the Navy, the regulator in the Ministry of Defence, and alongside the executor in public and private shipyards, and has served across all three warship propulsion streams: steam, diesel and gas turbine.

His foundation was built at the waterfront. As Officer-in-Charge of the Fleet Maintenance Unit, Western Naval Command, he ran first-line maintenance for ships and submarines and re-powered the Remote Control Target Boat with diesel propulsion. As Joint Director Marine Engineering, he led marine-engineering system integration for the Integrated Platform Management System aboard INS Vikrant and the P-28 ASW corvettes.

Naval Ship Repair Yard, Sri Vijaya Puram (erstwhile Port Blair). As Commodore Superintendent Yard, he commanded the Navy's repair yard in the Andamans against geographic isolation, constrained finances and thin in-house expertise. He ran seven refits concurrently unprecedented for the yard directed ₹1,200 crore of infrastructure works, and recruited 400 artisans to build a permanent skill base. The yard earned the Unit Citation for 2020–21. Earlier, at Project Seabird, he directed ₹8,000 crore of marine infrastructure, including Pier 5 for aircraft carriers.

At the apex of his service he directed the Navy's indigenisation and quality-assurance machinery. As Assistant Chief of Materiel and Director General of the Naval Acceptance Trial Authority, he authored the Indigenisation Plan 2047 and progressed 52 contracts worth ₹1,265 crore. As Additional Director General Quality Assurance (Warship Projects), he moved naval QA from inspection to enablement under QA 4.0, issued the QA Compendium (QAD-R03), qualified 36 foundries to clear a marine-castings bottleneck, and chaired the Project Monitoring Committee for the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme.

Mentoring is not new ground. Chairing the Navy's iDEX steering committee, he ran 184 technology challenges with more than 300 startups, whose recurring difficulty was rarely the technology and almost always the passage from prototype to induction.

A registered Independent Director (DPE/IICA), he mentors on marine and propulsion engineering, refit management, defence quality assurance, and the route a small company must travel to become a credible defence supplier..

Security Notice: The name and portrait of this officer are intentionally withheld in compliance with military security protocols for serving personnel[cite: 1].

An NDA alumnus commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery, Colonel X (name withheld as the officer is still serving) is an elite specialist with vast experience spanning MALE and HALE UAVs (Searcher Mk II and Heron classes), long-range vectors, and radars[cite: 1]. As a Chief Qualified Flying Instructor with over 15 years of experience and an exceptional incident-free flying record, he has commanded strategic UAV operations for 26/11 counter-terror operations, surgical strikes, and counter-insurgency[cite: 1]. He has planned and executed missions from nearly all Army and IAF UAV bases, commanded an independent UAV unit in the Northeast, and taught at the School of Artillery, Nashik[cite: 1]. His technical mastery is highlighted by his ability to handle critical in-air emergencies, safely recovering distressed aircraft while preventing civilian casualties and property damage[cite: 1].

Simultaneously, Colonel X is a premier artillery expert, qualified as an Instructor in Gunnery from the School of Artillery, Nashik[cite: 1]. During Operation Vijay (1999 Kargil War), he engaged in direct close combat while orchestrating highly accurate artillery fire to support ground forces in recapturing Indian posts[cite: 1]. His tactical precision during Operation Meghdoot on the Siachen Glacier is a textbook operation on the use of artillery in super-high altitude lending towards mission accomplishment[cite: 1]. His deep, dual expertise in unmanned systems and heavy firepower cements his impact as an invaluable asset in modern combat[cite: 1].

Colonel Saikat Bose (Retd.) is a distinguished Indian Army officer whose three-decade career traversed the full spectrum of command, staff, and specialist roles across diverse operational and environmental conditions, while simultaneously cultivating an intellectually rare convergence of warfare studies, military sociology, systems theory, and comparative religion and mythology. His defining professional contribution lay at the intersection of operational art and analytical science — most consequentially in the domain of wargaming, where he served as Colonel General Staff (Wargames) at the Indian Army's Training Command and worked in multiple capacities with the Wargaming Development Centre (WARDEC), the Indian Army's premier wargame development facility.

His expertise was formally leveraged by the Institute of Systems Studies and Analysis (ISSA) — the DRDO's wargaming, operations research, and systems analysis laboratory — cementing his standing as one of India's foremost practitioner-scholars at the confluence of military simulation and complexity theory. Beyond wargaming, he was instrumental in designing the surveillance management system for a premium Indian Army project, demonstrating rare systems engineering acumen alongside his doctrinal and analytical contributions. His PhD research in wargaming operationalizes this paradigm by modelling warfare as an intensely human activity in which agent behaviour, bounded rationality, morale, training, and fatigue play decisive roles.

Since retiring from the Indian Army in 2026, Colonel Bose has devoted himself fully to his wide and mutually complementary intellectual interests, channelling his operational experience into a prolific body of books, research papers, and journal articles that collectively advance a singular conviction — that warfare is fundamentally a cultural and human phenomenon, not merely a technological or institutional one. He is currently expanding wargaming methodologies beyond military scenarios into trade, disaster management, and international relations, while championing wargaming as a rigorous tool for historical research.