The race for the director-general's post of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, is hotting up. A number of former diplomats and bureaucrats are vying to get the coveted post of the outfit that is based in New Delhi and funded by the Indian defense ministry.
The director-general's post fell vacant after Arvind Gupta, the former DG, left to become the deputy National Security Adviser a few months back.
Among the candidates in the race are three former diplomats and one retired bureaucrat of the Indian Administrative Service, They are Jayanta Prasad, India's former ambassador to Nepal; Prabhat Shukla, former ambassador to Russia; and Rakesh Sood, former ambassador to Afghanistan and Prime Minister's advisor on disarmament. The fourth candidate is Shakti Sinha, former joint secretary in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Sources say, a search committee – comprising some advisers of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including the BJP general secretary, Ram Madhav – is now assessing the candidature of each of the claimants to take a final decision for the post at the earliest.
Though funded by the defense ministry, the Institute, better known by its acronym IDSA, claims to have an independent view on issues relating to defense, security and strategic issues both related to India and the wider world. It has over 70 scholars, from different parts of the country and elsewhere in the region and regularly holds seminars and conferences at its impressive campus in the capital. These conferences are attended by leading scholars and experts from the field of defense and strategic affairs.
In the past many well-known experts and commentators on strategic issues, like K. Subramanyam, Jasjit Singh and C. Uday Bhaskar have headed the IDSA and given it the profile it enjoys in the country and elsewhere.
