Speakers

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  Abhinandan Sekhri

  Co-founder, Newslaundry

  

  Abhinandan Sekhri

  Co-founder, Newslaundry

  Abhinandan is the co-founder of Newslaundry — a reader-supported, independent news organisation. He has also co-founded a production house, Small Screen, with Prashant Sareen. Before founding Newslaundry, he worked as a producer, director and writer in various television and film projects, including the award-winning food and travel show Highway on my Plate, and news-satire shows such as Gustaakhi Maaf and The Great Indian Tamasha.

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  Agne Kaarlep

  Policy Officer - Counter Terrorism and Radicalisation, European Commission

  

  Agne Kaarlep

  Policy Officer - Counter Terrorism and Radicalisation, European Commission

  Agne works in the European Commission, DG Migration and Home Affairs on developing effective policies to counter terrorism and violent extremism online. In this role she works on the negotiations with the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the regulation to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content online. Agne is also responsible for the development of the EU Internet forum which coordinates voluntary cooperation between Member States, Europol, the industry led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and wider industry partners looking at progress in tackling terrorist content online and responding to new trends.

  Prior to joining the Commission, Agne worked as a diplomat for the Ministry of the Interior in Brussels covering a wide range of security and counter terrorism issues.

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  Ali Khan Mahmudabad

  Assistant Professor of Political Science and History, Ashoka University

  

  Ali Khan Mahmudabad

  Assistant Professor of Political Science and History, Ashoka University

  Dr. Ali Khan Mahmudabad is currently an Assistant Professor at Ashoka University (India) where he teaches political science and history. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and previously studied at the University of Damascus (Syria) and Amherst College (USA). He writes a column in Urdu for the Indian national daily Inqilab in India and has been writing columns and editorials for various English newspapers and magazines for a number of years. He is the author of Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India, 1850-1950.

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  Amitabh Mattoo

  Chairman, Miranda House and Professor — School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

  

  Amitabh Mattoo

  Chairman, Miranda House and Professor — School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

  Professor Amitabh Mattoo is presently Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Professor of International Relations at the University of Melbourne. He co-chairs the Australia-India Leadership Dialogue and was the Foundation Director of the Australia Institute and serves on its Board. He is concurrently the Chairman of Miranda House, the top ranking college in India and was an Advisor with Cabinet Rank to the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He was awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to Education and Public Life in 2008.

  Professor Mattoo has been a Member of the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory group to the Prime Minister of India and the National Security Council’s Advisory Board. He is a member of the Executive Committee and Governing Council of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and Chaired the Jammu and Kashmir Stake Knowledge Initiative. From 2002-2008, Professor Mattoo was the Vice-Chancellor of Jammu University. He received his doctorate from the University of Oxford and has been a visiting Professor at Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris.

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  Ankhi Das

  Public Policy Director — India, South and Central Asia, Facebook

  

  Ankhi Das

  Public Policy Director — India, South and Central Asia, Facebook

  Ankhi Das is the Director of Public Policy for Facebook in India and South & Central Asia. With over 17 years of public policy and regulatory affairs experience in the technology sector, Ankhi’s primary responsibilities are to lead Facebook’s efforts on Internet governance, promoting access and Open Internet, privacy, data security, safety issues and political risk management for the company. In this role, Ankhi oversees the company’s relationships with policymakers, elected officials, government agencies and NGOs in India, South & Central Asian countries and directs the company’s programs in these areas. One of her key goals is to promote the use of facebook for civic engagement, community organizing for elections and social causes and fuelling economic growth and opportunities for SMBs.

  Ankhi is a member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory (MAG) of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a private sector representative and an active participant in the global multi-stakeholder dialog.

  She has participated in several global internet policy negotiations of the ITU and represented industry. This includes UN led intergovernmental negotiations, at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), hosted by ITU, in Dubai in Dec 2012 and the Busan Round or the Plenipotentiary 2014 meeting. She is an active voice on Internet Governance issues at the IGF and groups like ICC-BASIS, FICCI, COAI, USIBC, IAMAI and participated in the NetMundial text negotiations and the meeting in Sao Paulo on the future of the internet. Ankhi is also the Vice-Chair of the USIBC Digital Economy Committee.

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  Arjun Jayakumar

  Associate Fellow — Cyber Initiative, ORF

  

  Arjun Jayakumar

  Associate Fellow — Cyber Initiative, ORF

  Arjun Jayakumar is an Associate Fellow at ORF. He works with ORF’s Cyber Initiative, part of the larger Technology and Media team.

  Before joining ORF, Arjun was associated with Software Freedom Law Centre, India, where he wrote extensively on issues affecting digital civil liberties and represented the organisation at domestic and international policy forums. He has also published research reports on intermediary liability, communications surveillance and online harassment.

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  Ashima Kaul

  Founder and Managing Director, Yakjah Reconciliation and Development Network

  

  Ashima Kaul

  Founder and Managing Director, Yakjah Reconciliation and Development Network

  Ashima Kaul is an independent peace practitioner and journalist, as well as Founder and Managing Director of Yakjah Reconciliation and Development Network, a network of youth, women, and religious leaders in Jammu and Kashmir. She has conducted workshops encouraging interfaith/interethnic/intercommunity cooperation for children and youth, using media such as film, theater, and art as tools to promote dialogue and leadership. She directed Athwaas: The Journey, a film about her work produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust in India.

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  Ashish Jaiman

  Director of Technology Operations, Microsoft

  

  Ashish Jaiman

  Director of Technology Operations, Microsoft

  Ashish Jaiman is a hands-on technology innovator who thrives on the challenges of developing technology solutions for everyday problems and opportunities. He has more than 20 years’ experience in building and leading cross-functional, high-performing teams to create and implement highly scalable, mission-critical software solutions and lines of business.

  Ashish is the Director of Technology and Operations in the Customer Security and Trust organisation at Microsoft. Ashish’s mission is to help customers to improve their security posture and defend against cyber-attacks. Ashish led the work on Microsoft AccountGuard service, which provides customers with additional monitoring and notification against nation-state attacks. Ashish is currently working on disinformation defense and deepfakes intervention strategy and its impact on society and democracy.

  In his previous entrepreneurial adventures, Ashish has driven growth in and exited two successful startups. Ashish was CTO of NGPVAN before coming to Microsoft. Ashish also ran the engineering team for a startup that was acquired by a bank.

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  Assan Ali

  P/CVE Capacity Building Officer, The Commonwealth Secretariat

  

  Assan Ali

  P/CVE Capacity Building Officer, The Commonwealth Secretariat

  Mr Assan Ali is an experienced P/CVE practitioner and programme manager with twenty years’ experience working on community development and community safety, including 13 years’ experience working directly on preventing and countering violent extremism with local and national Governments in the UK and through multilateral institutions in his current role with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s CVE Unit. He is responsible for capacity-building programs on a range of topics to support international efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE).

  Assan started his career in local government (London) as a graduate trainee in 2002 focusing in the area of Community Safety. Since then, Assan has worked as a P/CVE Coordinator in a number of London based local authorities since 2007 and as the London Regional Coordinator (Government Office for London).

  Assan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Masters in Criminal Justice Studies, and an Honorary Fellow at the Queen Mary University of London.

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  Barkha Dutt

  Senior Journalist

  

  Barkha Dutt

  Senior Journalist

  Barkha Dutt is a multi-award winning, Emmy-nominated journalist, broadcaster and author who has spent more than two decades reporting from Jammu and Kashmir. She is the author of This Unquiet Land: Stories from India's Fault Linesand a columnist with the Washington Post, Hindustan Times, and The Week. She is among the five most followed journalists globally on Twitter.

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  Beth Goldberg

  Research Program Manager, Jigsaw

  

  Beth Goldberg

  Research Program Manager, Jigsaw

  Beth leads research on violent extremism for Jigsaw, a Google incubator, where she is responsible for developing new research initiatives and advising tech products and policies. As a qualitative researcher, Beth conducts field research with former violent jihadists, neo-Nazis, online harassers and conspiracy theorists. Prior to joining Jigsaw, she managed programs for the US Department of State with Freedom House with a focus on digital security and freedom of expression in authoritarian regimes. She is a Fellow of the Zeit-Stiftung / ORF Asian Forum on Global Governance and Senior Fellow with Humanity in Action.

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  Boaz Ganor

  Founder and Executive Director, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Israel

  

  Boaz Ganor

  Founder and Executive Director, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, Israel

  Prof. Boaz Ganor is the Founder and Executive Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the Ronald S. Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel. After serving for ten years as Deputy Dean and five as the Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy at IDC Herzliya, Prof. Ganor spent 2019 on sabbatical and served as a Visiting Fellow, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Australia, an Adjunct Professor, Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Charles Stuart University, Australia and as the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor and Israel Institute Fellow, Georgetown University, USA. Prof. Ganor also serves as the Founding President of the International Academic Counter-Terrorism Community (ICTAC), an international association of academic institutions, experts, and researchers in fields related to the study of terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. He previously held positions at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, the Hoover Institution, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, MIPT (The National Memorial for the Prevention of Terrorism), Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. He was also a member of the International Advisory Team of the Manhattan Institute (CTCT) to the New York Police Department (NYPD).

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  Colin P. Clarke

  Senior Research Fellow, The Soufan Center and Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

  

  Colin P. Clarke

  Senior Research Fellow, The Soufan Center and Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University

  Colin P. Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center. Clarke is also an assistant teaching professor in the Institute for Politics and Strategy (IPS) at Carnegie Mellon University, an associate Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) — The Hague, and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Perspectives on Terrorism. Before coming to CMU, Clarke spent nearly a decade at the RAND Corporation where he was a senior political scientist focusing on terrorism, insurgency and criminal networks. Clarke is the author of Terrorism, Inc.: The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare (2015) and Terrorism: The Essential Reference Guide (2018), both published by ABC-CLIO/Praeger Security International. His forthcoming book, After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Terrorist Diaspora was published by Polity Press in the spring of 2019

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  Deepa Bhatia

  Film Editor, Documentary Director and Producer

  

  Deepa Bhatia

  Film Editor, Documentary Director and Producer

  Deepa Bhatia is a Mumbai-based film editor, documentary director and producer. Post a media studies course at Sophia Polytechnic, she began her career as an assistant director to Govind Nihalani, moving on to editing his feature films including Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998) and Dev (2004). She has since edited over twenty feature films including Raees (2017), Jahnu Barua’s Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (2005), Kai Po Che (2013), Daddy (2017), My Name is Khan (2010) and Taare Zameen Par (2007), where she was credited with the concept, research and editing. Her first documentary Nero’s Guests (2009), reported on the agrarian crisis as seen through the eyes of rural journalist, P. Sainath and won several Indian and International awards including, FIPRESCI Critics Award at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2010, Jury’s Special Mention, IDPA's Gold Medal for Best Documentary and Best Feature Documentary at Cinestrat, Spain.

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  Dolkun Isa

  President, World Uyghur Congress

  

  Dolkun Isa

  President, World Uyghur Congress

  As the President of the World Uyghur Congress, Dolkun Isa is instrumental in presenting Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organisations. Recognised for his efforts in raising awareness of the human rights situation facing the Uyghur people and for calling for greater democracy and freedom in China, Isa received the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Human Rights Award on 30 March 2016. He was elected as the Vice-President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) in 2017, of which the World Uyghur Congress is a member.

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  Eli Sugarman

  Director — Cyber Initiative, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

  

  Eli Sugarman

  Director — Cyber Initiative, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

  Eli Sugarman is Director of the Cyber Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads a ten-year, $130 million grant-making effort that aims to build a more robust cybersecurity field and improve policy-making.

  Previously, he was a consultant and strategist to private sector and nonprofit leaders. From 2009 to 2014, Eli was senior director at an emerging markets advisory firm based in Washington, D.C., where he provided strategic counsel on international policy, regulatory, and business matters to clients globally. He has served as a foreign affairs officer at the US Department of State, where he focused on international security issues.

  Eli also serves on the executive board of the CyberPeace Institute (CPI) and Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). He writes regularly about cybersecurity, government surveillance, data privacy and internet governance in leading outlets.

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  Eric Rosand

  Director, Prevention Project and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

  

  Eric Rosand

  Director, Prevention Project and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

  Eric Rosand is the Director of the Prevention Project and a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, and President of PVE Solutions, LLC. Previously, he was a senior official in the US Department of State working on counterterrorism (CT) and countering violent extremism (CVE). During this time he was the Department’s policy coordinator for the White House CVE Summit and follow-on process, led efforts to design and launch a number of multilateral CT and CVE initiatives including the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and related international institutions, including Hedayah, the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law, and the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, as well as the Strong Cities Network, the first-ever global platform to connect cities and other sub-national authorities involved in CVE efforts. From 2006 to 2010, he co-directed the Global Center on Cooperative Security) and served as a nonresident fellow at New York University’s Center for International Cooperation. Prior to that, he served in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor and as a counterterrorism adviser and lawyer at the United States Mission to the United Nations.

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  Erin Saltman

  Head, Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations Policy — EMEA, Facebook

  

  Erin Saltman

  Head, Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations Policy — EMEA, Facebook

  Dr Saltman is Facebook’s Head of Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organisations Policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Her background and expertise include processes of radicalisation within a range of regional and socio-political contexts. Her research and publications have focused on the evolving nature of online extremism and terrorism, gender dynamics within violent extremist organisations and youth radicalisation. She also manages Facebook’s work with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

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  Gautam Bambawale

  Former Ambassador to China

  

  Gautam Bambawale

  Former Ambassador to China

  Gautam Bambawale is a noted Indian diplomat and has served as the Indian Ambassador to China from 2017 to 2018. In a career spanning over four decades, Ambassador Bambawale has served in various significant capacities, such as India’s first Consul General in Guangzhou, Head of the Political Wing at the Indian Embassy at Washington, DC and as the first Desk Officer for China at the Ministry of External Affairs. He also served as the Joint Secretary (East Asia) for the Ministry and is considered as a leading expert on China.

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  Jacinta Carrol

  Visiting fellow, Senior Research Fellow for the Counter Terrorism and Social Cohesion Project, National Security College

  

  Jacinta Carrol

  Visiting fellow, Senior Research Fellow for the Counter Terrorism and Social Cohesion Project, National Security College

  Jacinta Carroll joined the National Security College as the Director, National Security Policy, in August 2017. She is a member of NSC’s Futures Council and works across the NSC’s professional development, policy and academic programme.

  Previously, Jacinta was the inaugural Head of ASPI’s Counter Terrorism Policy Centre, a position she held since August 2015. Jacinta joined ASPI from the Australian Government where she had held a variety of Senior Executive appointments, and worked in the Department of Defence and the Attorney-General’s Department. Her career experience includes working on national security, counter-terrorism, strategic policy, border security, military operations, campaign planning and scenario development, information management, and international policy with a particular focus on the Middle East and Afghanistan; she has served in Iraq.

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  Jessie Francescon

  Director of Dialogue and Communications, Hedayah

  

  Jessie Francescon

  Director of Dialogue and Communications, Hedayah

  Jessie Lowry Francescon brings more than a decade of strategic communications, international development, brand awareness, global affairs, crisis management and media relations experience. She develops strategies in collaboration with a diverse range of clients including governments to private industry to C-suite executives.

  Ms. Francescon currently serves as the US Department of State Counter-Terrorism Bureau’s Senior Advisor of Communications and is the US Government secondee at Hedayah, the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism. Throughout her career, she has gained significant knowledge in multiple sectors such as counterterrorism (CT)/countering violent extremism (CVE), economic growth, market systems, and food security programs in developing economies to global trade, energy and environment for the steel industry. Ms. Francescon presents and moderates on various panels such as UN Women, UNCTED, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the GCTF, IPAG, IDSA and ORF.

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  Kabir Taneja

  Fellow — Strategic Studies Programme, ORF

  

  Kabir Taneja

  Fellow — Strategic Studies Programme, ORF

  Kabir Taneja is a Fellow with the Strategic Studies programme at ORF. His research focuses on India’s relations with West Asia, specifically looking at the domestic political dynamics, terrorism, non-state militant actors and the general security paradigm of the region. Kabir has written extensively in The New York Times, The Hindu, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Huffington Post, Politico, Quartz, and The Wire, among others.

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  Kathy Gannon

  Senior Correspondent, Associated Press

  

  Kathy Gannon

  Senior Correspondent, Associated Press

  Kathy Gannon serves as senior correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan for The Associated Press (AP). She has covered the region for the AP as a correspondent and bureau chief since 1988, a period that spans the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Afghanistan, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the bitter Afghan civil war between Islamic factions and the rise and fall of the Taliban. Gannon was the only Western journalist allowed in Kabul by the Taliban in the weeks preceding the 2001 US-British offensive in Afghanistan.

  In addition to her coverage of South Central Asia, she has covered the Middle East, including the 2006 Israeli war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and war in northern Iraq.

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  Mahima Kaul

  Director, Public Policy, Twitter India & South Asia

  

  Mahima Kaul

  Director, Public Policy, Twitter India & South Asia

  Mahima Kaul is the Director of Policy at Twitter India. In this role, she oversees the company’s relationships with policymakers, elected officials, government agencies and NGOs in India and directs policy programmes in these areas. She also manages the #TwitterForGood programme; engaging with civil society to use Twitter for civic engagement, including during disasters and crisis. Since 2017, she is also the Co- Chair of CyFy: The India Conference on Technology, Security and Society.

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  Maya Mirchandani

  Senior Fellow, ORF and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies, Ashoka University

  

  Maya Mirchandani

  Senior Fellow, ORF and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies, Ashoka University

  Maya Mirchandani is a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies at Ashoka University. For nearly 25 years, she was a practicing journalist with NDTV, reporting on Indian foreign policy, conflict, and national politics. She has reported extensively from Kashmir, survived suicide bomb blasts in Sri Lanka, civil war in Sierra Leone, and reported from New York on 9/11 and its immediate aftermath. Maya has won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, the Red Ink Award for reporting on human rights as well as the Exchange for Media Broadcast Journalism Award for best international affairs reporting. More recently, Maya has been involved in research on ‘Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ (P/CVE) at ORF that focuses on ways to build counter narratives to prevent radicalisation and extremist violence through dialogue and community intervention. Analysis of hate speech that fuels extremist narratives and the impact of counter speech messaging on both mass and social media is also a core focus of her research.

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  Maya Wang

  Senior China Researcher
  Human Rights Watch

  

  Maya Wang

  Senior China Researcher
  Human Rights Watch

  Maya Wang, a senior China researcher for Human Rights Watch, has written extensively on the use of torture, arbitrary detention, human rights defenders, civil society, and the use of technology in mass surveillance and social control in China. Her latest report, China’s Algorithms of Repression: Reverse Engineering a Xinjiang Police Mass Surveillance App, and her series of press releases on China’s mass biometric collection and artificial intelligence from 2017 has contributed to a wave of international attention on China’s mass surveillance practices in Xinjiang, China and globally.

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  Milo Comerford

  Senior Policy Manager, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

  

  Milo Comerford

  Senior Policy Manager, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

  Milo Comerford is Senior Policy Manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), leading ISD’s work developing innovative research approaches and policy responses to Islamist extremism. Milo regularly briefs senior decision makers around the world on the challenge posed by extremist ideologies, and advises governments and international agencies on building effective strategies for countering extremism. Milo was previously Senior Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where he led major research projects on Jihadi propaganda, religious counter narratives to extremism and the transnational far right.

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  Ambassador Olivier Caron

  Special Envoy for Counter-Terrorism, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Government of France

  

  Ambassador Olivier Caron

  Special Envoy for Counter-Terrorism, Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Government of France

  Ambassador Olivier Caron serves as the Special Envoy for Counter-Terrorism for the French Foreign Ministry. In a career spanning over two decades he has served in various strategic roles for the French Government, overseeing crucial mandates such as Strategic Affairs for the French Prime Minister (2002-05), Atomic Energy (2005-09), as an Ambassador to Singapore (2009-13), Civil Aviation (2013-16) and most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of the High Council for Strategic Research and Education (2016). Ambassador Caron has done his Masters in Political Science from SciencesPo, Paris.

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  Raffaello Pantucci

  Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Senior Visiting Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)

  

  Raffaello Pantucci

  Senior Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and Senior Visiting Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS)

  Raffaello Pantucci's research focuses on counter-terrorism as well as China's relations with its Western neighbours. Prior to coming to RUSI, Raffaello lived for over three years in Shanghai, where he was a visiting scholar at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS).

  Before that he worked in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. He has also held positions at the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR) and is an associate fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College, London. He is the author of We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain's Suburban Terrorists.

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  Ram Madhav

  National General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party

  

  Ram Madhav

  National General Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party

  Ram Madhav is an Indian politician, author and thinker who is currently serving as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Formerly, he has been a member of the National Executive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

  Ram Madhav also serves as a Member of the Governing Board of India Foundation, a New Delhi based premier think tank which seeks to articulate Indian Nationalistic perspective on issues of National and International importance.

  Mr Madhav has written several books in English and Telugu, with the most recent one being ‘Uneasy neighbours: India and China after 50 years of war’. He has written for several publications, including, The Indian Express and Open Magazine. He has also been the editor of Bharatiya Pragna, a monthly magazine in English published by Pragna Bharati, and associate editor of Jagriti, a Telugu weekly.

  He has traveled to over 30 countries and has addressed prestigious forums like the ShangriLa Dialogue in Singapore, World Peace Conference at the Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya (University) of Thailand, Halifax Security Forum in Canada, 2nd Sochi Eurasian Integration Forum in Russia, and the BRICS Political Forum in China amongst many others.

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  Rema Rajeshwari

  District Police Chief, Mahabubnagar

  

  Rema Rajeshwari

  District Police Chief, Mahabubnagar

  Rema Rajeshwari is an Indian Police Service officer with a distinguished career of integrity, courage and passion spanning over a decade. She has held various responsible and dynamic positions since her first assignment in the Police service as an Assault Commander with the ‘Greyhounds’, an elite special force, which undertakes high risk operations through jungle warfare against left-wing extremists. Working for people who are at the fault lines of the lethal intersection of society and violence, she has been instrumental in running successful operations against extremists, a women- and child-trafficking nexus, organised gangs, and other criminal activities. She has won accolades as the topper of the Indian Police Service class of 2009. Yale University selected her as the 'Yale World Fellow' in 2017. The International Association of Women Police (IAWP) featured her work under 'Leading Change' in 2018. Through her collaborative policing efforts, she encourages women to break gender stereotypes and empower them to emerge as leaders. Her research and experience has resulted in publishing articles in major news papers and presenting conference papers in numerous organisations about citizen-oriented policing, influence operations, narrative warfare, misinformation, new age crimes and gender based violence. Currently she is working on design thinking and social innovation to fight the menace of misinformation, fake news and malicious social media rumours that lead to violent crimes in peaceful communities.

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  Rita Singh

  Associate Research Professor — Language Technologies Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

  

  Rita Singh

  Associate Research Professor — Language Technologies Institute, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

  Dr. Rita Singh is an Associate Research Professor at the Language Technologies Institute, School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, USA, and (by courtesy) at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at CMU. She also holds affiliate faculty positions at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), CMU,

  Institute for Strategic Analysis, CMU and the Cyber Security & Privacy Institute (Cylab), CMU. In addition, she is affiliated to the DHS Center of Excellence for Criminal Investigations & Network Analysis, George Mason University.

  Her academic career spans over two decades of research on a wide range of topics in the areas of speech and audio signal processing, multimedia forensics and cyber forensics. Her current work is focused on creating and developing the science of profiling humans from their voice, a new sub-area of Artificial Intelligence and Voice Forensics. The technology pioneered by her group has led to two world firsts: In September 2018, her team created the world’s first live voice-based profiling system, demonstrated live at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, China and in 2019, they created the world’s first instance of human voice – that of the artist Rembrandt — generated based on evidence from facial images.

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  Sajid Shapoo

  Indian Police Service Officer and PhD Scholar, Princeton University

  

  Sajid Shapoo

  Indian Police Service Officer and PhD Scholar, Princeton University

  Sajid Farid Shapoo is a highly-decorated Indian Police Service officer, a two-star general with 20 years of progressively senior experience in high profile counter terror assignments. He has in-depth experience in Counter-terror Investigations and Intelligence Operations. He was the first officer chosen to serve in the National Investigation Agency, India’s federal counter terror agency, created in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, and has supervised many important terrorism related investigations including conspiracy in Mumbai Terror Attacks, Patna serial blasts case, Bodh Gaya serial blast cases and many more.

  He is among the rare officers who have been twice conferred with the Gallantry Medal, the highest bravery award, by the President of India. He is also a recipient of the Police Medal for Meritorious Service conferred to him by the President of India for his exemplary and unblemished service career.

  Mr Shapoo has served as an Adjunct Associate Professor in City University of New York, where he taught a course on Terrorism and Politics to graduate students in the spring of 2018. He has also served as an adjunct Instructor at Columbia University teaching a course for the Summer Immersion Program. His areas of expertise include Terrorism and Counter-terrorism, Religion and Politics in Middle East and South Asia, Ideologies driving various Jihadi Organisations, Early Islamic Period (Shia-Sunni divide) and International Security Policy.

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  Samir Saran

  President, ORF

  

  Samir Saran

  President, ORF

  Samir Saran is the President of Observer Research Foundation (ORF), one of Asia’s most influential think tanks. Working with the Board, he provides strategic direction and leadership to ORF’s multiple centres on fundraising, research projects, platform design and outreach initiatives including stakeholder engagement.

  He curates the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual flagship platform on geopolitics and geo-economics, and chairs CyFy, India’s annual conference on cyber security and internet governance. He spearheads the Foundation’s efforts to foster new international partnerships and globalise its platforms.

  Samir is also a Commissioner of The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, member of the South Asia advisory board of the World Economic Forum, and a part of its Global Future Council on Cybersecurity. He is also the Director of the Centre for Peace and Security at the Sardar Patel Police University, Jodhpur, India.

  Samir writes frequently on issues of global governance, climate change, energy policy, global development architecture, artificial intelligence, cyber security, internet governance, and India's foreign policy. He has authored four books, several academic papers, and is featured regularly in Indian and international print and broadcast media.

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  Sandeep Chaudhary

  Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag

  

  Sandeep Chaudhary

  Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag

  Sandeep Chaudhary is an Indian Police Service officer serving in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He has served as Zonal Superintendent of Police (SP) in both the capitals of the Union Territory i.e. Jammu and Srinagar. He served as SP South Srinagar during the agitation following the killing of terrorist Burhan Wani. He started his community police initiative ‘Operation Dreams’ during his tenure as SP, South Jammu where hundreds of young men and women were provided free coaching for competitive exams. He has been posted as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in the challenging South Kashmir region since 2018. He was the SSP of Shopian when Article 370 was abrogated and managed the challenging task of maintaining peace in the area. Currently posted as SSP of the biggest district in South Kashmir - Anantnag, he has pioneered an inclusive approach to counter terrorism in South Kashmir which includes targeted community policing and counselling to reduce the number of youth joining terrorist ranks and at the same time conducting clean Counter-terrorist operations based on specific inputs without causing collateral damage. He has been decorated with Gallantry Medal, Commendation discs from Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army, DG of CRPF and DGP of J&K. He writes for The Print on policing and security issues.

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  Sumaiya Shaikh

  Neuroscientist and Researcher in Violent Aggression, Linköping University Hospital, Sweden

  

  Sumaiya Shaikh

  Neuroscientist and Researcher in Violent Aggression, Linköping University Hospital, Sweden

  Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh is a neuroscientist at Centre for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Linköping University Hospital, Sweden. Her research is to study the neurobiological underpinnings of violent extremism. The work is a combination of laboratory and clinical research on why ordinary individuals engage in reward-seeking violence such as terrorism, which is then correlated with speaking with the real-world radicals and extremists who have been violent in the past.

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  Tanvir Sadiq

  Advisor to the Vice President of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference & Media Panelist for Jammu & Kashmir National Conference

  

  Tanvir Sadiq

  Advisor to the Vice President of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference & Media Panelist for Jammu & Kashmir National Conference

  Tanvir Sadiq is currently the spokesperson for the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and an advisor to former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. He began his political career as a corporator for Srinagar City. Tanvir is also an alumni of the US's International Visitors Leadership program.

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  Vani Tripathi Tikoo

  Actor, Producer and Member, Central Board of Film Certification

  

  Vani Tripathi Tikoo

  Actor, Producer and Member, Central Board of Film Certification

  Vani Tripathi Tikoo, an actor and a producer by profession, is one of the youngest ever members of the Central Board of Film Certification. She has been a socio-political activist and her campaigns and outreach programmes have focused on encouraging women's participation in politics and bringing the youth to a universal platform that addresses issues including education, empowerment and employment.

  She has been closely involved in theatre, films and television, having worked in projects in India as well as abroad. As an actor, she has about 50 plays, 40-odd TV serials and six films to her credit. She has worked in plays by legends like Anton Chekov, Peter Shaffer, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and several Indian playwrights.

  She currently analyses issues related to broadcasting and cinema and was part of the Core steering committee for the International Film Festival of India, Goa (IFFI) since the past four years.

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  Vidhya Ramalingam

  Founder, Moonshot CVE

  

  Vidhya Ramalingam

  Founder, Moonshot CVE

  Vidhya Ramalingam is Founder of Moonshot CVE, an organisation that uses technology to disrupt and counter violent extremism globally. She directs overall strategy and oversees campaigns, software development, and digital projects in over 25 countries. Under her leadership, Moonshot CVE has pioneered new partnerships with tech companies to respond to violent extremism on their platforms, online intervention programs to pull individuals out of violent movements, and the use of automated messaging to disrupt hate groups online. Vidhya has focused much of the past decade working to counter rightwing extremism and terrorism. Following the 22 July 2011 attacks in Norway, she led the European Union’s first inter-governmental initiative on right-wing terrorism, initiated by the Governments of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands, and launched by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs. She regularly advises Big Tech and Heads of State on tackling rightwing extremism, and has testified before the US Congress on the global threat posed by white nationalist terrorism. She has worked internationally to set up disengagement programmes to facilitate social work interventions to pull people out of violent extremism. Vidhya also serves on the Board of Life After Hate, an organisation set up by former white supremacists to help individuals leave hate groups.

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  Vishal Bharadwaj

  Filmmaker

  

  Vishal Bharadwaj

  Filmmaker

  Vishal Bhardwaj is an Indian film director, writer, composer, singer and producer. He has directed ten feature films, produced five and composed music for more than forty. His directorial work includes Makdee, The Blue Umbrella, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf, Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola, Rangoon, Pataakha as well as the internationally acclaimed Shakespeare Trilogy - Maqbool, Omkara and Haider (adapted from Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet, respectively). Prominent films written and produced by him are Ishqiya, Dedh Ishqiya and Talvar (based on the Noida double murder case).

  He has received 3 international awards: Makdee (2002) received the Best Film award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, Omkara (2006) won the Best Artistic Contribution in Cinema award at the Cairo International Film Festival and Haider (2014) won the People's Choice award at the Rome Film Festival. He has also received 7 National Awards: Best Music Direction for Godmother (1999), Best Children's Film for The Blue Umbrella (2005), Special Jury Award for Omkara (2006), Best Music Direction for Ishqiya (2010), Best Dialogues and Best Music Direction for Haider (2014) and Best Screenplay for Talvar (2015).

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  Yevhen Fedchenko

  Co-Founder and Chief Editor, StopFake.org

  

  Yevhen Fedchenko

  Co-Founder and Chief Editor, StopFake.org

  Yevhen Fedchenko, Ph.D is co-founder and Chief Editor of fact-checking website StopFake.org, leading hub of expertise on Russian disinformation. He is also Director of the Mohyla School of Journalism at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine. He advises on issues pertaining to tackling disinformation and media literacy, and is an active commentator of Ukrainian politics and speaker at numerous high-level international conferences. His main interests are information wars, propaganda and weaponisation of information, coverage of international politics in media and public diplomacy, digital journalism and innovations, journalism education in transitional societies and news standards.