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Agatha Kratz is a Partner at Rhodium Group, leading the firm’s corporate advisory work and research on EU-China relations.

Professor Agnes Binagwaho MD M(Ped) PHD is the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity an initiative of Partners in Health. She previously worked in various high-level government positions serving first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission then as Permanent Secretary and lastly as the Minister of Health for five years. Professor Binagwaho serves as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Professor Binagwaho has published over 210 peer-reviewed articles and was named among the 100 Most Influential African Women for 2020.

Ahmed Aboudouh is an associate fellow with the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa Programme, based in London. He is also the non-resident head of the China Studies research unit at the Emirates Policy Centre (EPC). His work focuses on China’s rising influence in the MENA region, the US-China competition, and its implications worldwide. He is a PhD candidate at King’s College London, where his thesis focuses on the US-China competition in the Global South.

Ahmed Dawoud is an economist and Head of the Data Analytics Unit at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES). He specialises in applying data science, causal AI, and machine learning to economic research and policy analysis. His work focuses on developing data-driven tools and causal models to tackle complex challenges in trade, labour markets, and population dynamics—bridging the gap between economic theory and practical policy solutions.

Ahmed Wael Ahmed Habashy is an AI engineer at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies (ECES), where he focuses on developing intelligent systems for labour market and economic analysis. He specialises in building data-driven solutions that generate clear, actionable insights from labour market data to inform policy research and evidence-based decision-making.

Ajay Bisaria is a Distinguished Fellow at ORF. He is also a strategic consultant and commentator on international affairs. He has had a distinguished diplomatic career spanning 35 years when he dealt with some of Indias key economic and security relationships. He served as Indian High Commissioner to Canadafrom 2020 to 2022. He was earlier Indias envoy in Pakistan (2017-2020) Poland and Lithuania (2015-2017). He has also represented the country at the World Bank in Washington DC and in embassies in Berlin and Moscow. He has served in various capacities in the Ministry of External Affairs Department of Commerce and the Prime Ministers Office where he was a key aide to Prime Minister Vajpayee from 1999 to 2004. He has dealt extensively with Indias Eurasia policy including with Russia Ukraine and Central Asia.

He has published and lectured on issues related to trade, finance and geopolitics, with a focus on South Asia, Eurasia, Central Asia and Canada. He has lately written a series of op-eds on Pakistan in the Times of India. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University; an MBA (Finance and Marketing) from IIM Calcutta; and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Princeton University. He has received distinguished alumnus awards from Modern School and IIM Calcutta. He speaks Russian, German and Urdu, apart from Hindi and English.

Ajay K Mehra is the Former Principal of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College Delhi University and former Atal Senior Fellow Nehru Memorial Museum and Library New Delhi (2019-21). His major publications include The Indian Parliament and Democratic Transformation (2017).

Ajay Singh is a Content Editor - Hindi at ORF Delhi. 

He focuses on ORF’s publications and research products in Hindi. Ajay is interested in issues pertaining to International Relations and Public Policy. 

Prior to his current role, Ajay served as a Research Assistant. Ajay has a Master in Political Science and Modern History from University of Rajasthan.

Ajay Tyagi specialises in the financial sector especially the capital markets. He has also worked extensively in the environment and energy sectors.

He served as the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from March 2017 to February 2022.  SEBI is a statutory Regulatory body with the mandate to protect the interest of investors in securities, and to regulate and promote the development of the securities market.

Before Joining SEBI, Ajay Tyagi had a career spanning almost 33 years in the Indian Administrative Service, where he held several senior positions in the Central and State Governments.

He served as an Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, handling diverse areas/subjects like Capital Markets, Investment, Infrastructure Financing, Financial Sector Reforms, Financial Stability Issues, FATF, and Coins & Currency.

Previously, he served as a Joint Secretary in the Ministries of Environment & Forests and Petroleum & Natural Gas. He was also Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board and Secretary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board.

He served as Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary in the Departments of Finance, Planning, Industries, and Information Technology in the Government of Himachal Pradesh.

Ajay Tyagi did his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and post-graduation in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur. He has also done a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University.

Ajish P. Joy, Senior Assistant News Editor, specialises in foreign affairs. He has a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2011). Ajish focuses on the US, Europe and the Middle East. His other areas of interest include the emerging politics of the Indo-Pacific and far right populism

Akanksha Khullar is a Visiting Fellow with the ORFs Strategic Studies Programme where her work focuses on the intersection of policy advice and academic research on gender security issues particularly in terms of understanding the Women Peace and Security agenda and identifying how women in different conflict contexts are being impacted: espousing for more women to be included in peace-making: and addressing the inter-linked issues of peace justice governance and security in South Asia.

Akanksha is also an Assistant Manager, Ministry of Women and Child Development Desk at Invest India where she oversees the designing of a gender data dashboard that communicates women and child specific data in a user-friendly digital format. Prior to this role, she has worked as the Country Coordinator for India at the Women's Regional Network and as a Researcher at the Centre for Internal and Regional Security with Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi.

In the past, Akanksha has authored various journal articles, book chapters, reports, and opinion pieces for several platforms globally. Some of her works have appeared in South China Morning Post, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Firstpost, The Toronto Star, The Diplomat, South Asian Voices, Deccan Herald, Asia Times, Modern Diplomacy, IPCS, and the Quint.

Akanksha Sharma is an International Development and Public Policy Specialist. She has been recognised as the 'Most Impactful CSR Leaders Globally' 'Asias Top Sustainability Leaders' Young CSR Leader 'Influential Sustainability Leaders' amongst others.Sharma carries over a decade's experience in leadership roles spread across four continents: ranging across the private sector the social sector and with UNICEF. She has worked extensively on international development issues such as poverty alleviation health education environment climate change gender issues post conflict development governance Sustainability ESG and Impact Investing and Blended Finance.Born in Jaipur Rajasthan Akanksha has Masters in International Development from the University of Sussex and a super specialisation from Harvard University. She has also served on several boards and policy committees.Currently she is the Global Head for Social Impact and Sustainability of a tech multi-national. Sharma is also a seasoned Columnist and writes for Forbes Times of India ET Dawn (Pakistan) Huffington Post and many others. For her Peace Series on Indo-Pak relations published in the Dawn she was recognised as a 'Peace Ambassador' of Postcards for Peace. She is a also 'Global Climate Force Ambassador' who represented India on an 'International Climate Change Expedition at Antarctica'. She is also World Economic Forum's Global Shaper and a speaker at TEDx Raisina Dialogues and other notable forums. She has also been a Sustainable Fashion model and has advocated for conscious living.

Akhilesh Sati is a Programme Manager working under ORFs Energy Initiative for more than fifteen years. With Statistics as academic background his core area of work is energy in numbers.

He provides and interprets data on energy, works for Energy Initiative’s flagship weekly publication ORF Energy News Monitor and involved in organisational work for the Energy Initiative.

Akop Gabrielyan PhD is a researcher and graduate of Russian-Armenian University specialised in international relations and particularly the questions of international integration processes international institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Lt Col Akshat Upadhyay is a Research Fellow at MP-IDSA. He is a serving army officer who has written for a number of print publications such as Tribune The Hindu Hindustan Times and Sunday Guardian. He's the author of Coercive Diplomacy against Pakistan and has written a number of papers and articles for CLAWS USI Indian Military Review IDSA South Asia Security Trends and Pragati magazine.

Akshay Chettri is a member of Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group based in Pune and IUCN-WCPA. His work focuses on political ecology of conservation in India primarily on Protected Areas.

Akshay Shetty leads the collaborative-building efforts on climate action at ClimateRISE

Dr. Alan Bloomfield is a Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales Australia. He has recently published India and the Responsibility to Protect with Ashgate. His co-edited book Norm Antipreneurs and the Politics of Resistance to Global Normative Change will be published in October 2016 by Routledge. Alan tracks Indian and Australian foreign policy and global norm dynamics. He has published in leading IR journals including Review of International Studies Pacific Review and Contemporary Security Policy.

Dr Albert Chiang is an Officer on Special Duty at Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA), Govt of Meghalaya with primary association to the Meghalaya Climate Change Centre. Albert is on deputation from the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India, where he is a Scientist in Restoration Ecology.

Albert received his PhD from Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR). He conducted his postdoctoral studies at NCBS-TIFR Bangalore and University College London (UCL), United Kingdom, through an Early Career Fellowship of the DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance.

Alejandra Cardini is Director of Education Programme at CIPPEC (Argentina) and Task Force Co-chair at the Think20.

Aleksandra Jaskólska, PhD, University of Warsaw, Poland. She works on India’s foreign policy and international relations in the Indo-Pacific.

Aleksei Zakharov is a Fellow with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme. His research focuses on the geopolitics and geo-economics of Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific, with particular emphasis on Russia’s foreign policy towards South Asia and India-Russia relations.

Previously, Aleksei was a Post-doctoral Fellow at HSE University, Moscow, and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He also was a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Gateway House, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), and the French Institute of Geopolitics at the University of Paris 8.

Alessandro Meneghella holds a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He currently works at Disal Consulting, where he focuses on strategic planning and socio-economic impact assessment for governments, international organisations, and large corporations.

Alexander Iskandaryan is Director of the Armenia-based Caucasus Institute.

Alexandra Koval has a master degree in law of international trade. She has worked as a researcher in Russian Foreign Trade Academy (RFTA) under Ministry of economic development of Russian Federation and specialized in export support measures. Alexandra is now leading "Russia-OECD Club and works as the researcher in Russia-OECD Center. As an expert she has closed cooperation with government authorities like Government Ministry for Economic Development VEB.RF DOM.RF etc. Alexandra participates on an ongoing basis in the work of the OECDs committees and working groups. Export support SMEs tax responsible business conduct OECD tools are the main areas of her interests.

Dr Alexis Crow is Partner and Chief Economist of PwC US. A global economist who focuses on geopolitics and long-term investing, she works with the world’s leading companies and private investors to understand and navigate key macroeconomic dynamics impacting their business, strategy, and capital allocation decisions. In her remit, she covers Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. Dr Crow is a public speaker and frequent contributor to leading global financial publications and media outlets, including the Financial Times, the New York Times, Bloomberg, BBC, BBC Arabic, France 24, CNN, and the Washington Post.

In addition to her role with PwC, Dr Crow is a Senior Fellow at Columbia Business School, and also with the Observer Research Foundation in India. She serves as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Geopolitics, and she is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum. Dr. Crow is a reader at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. She also serves on the advisory board for Faith in Action in the World Economic Forum.

Prior to joining PwC, she taught at the London School of Economics; led a major policy research project at London UK-based think-tank Chatham House; and served as Managing Director at New York-based G2 Investment Group. Dr Crow holds a MA Hons First Class from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and an MSc and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad is the Founder and Director of the Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG), a Berlin-headquartered think-tank devoted to exploring transformations and promoting a foreign policy that reconciles interests and values. Among his publications are, most recently, The Islamic Republic in Existential Crisis: The Need for a Paradigm Shift in the EU’s Iran Policy (2023, European Union Institute for Security Studies, Chaillot Paper), the much-acclaimed book Iran in an Emerging New World Order: From Ahmadinejad to Rouhani (2021, Palgrave), The Islamic Republic of Iran Four Decades On: The 2017/18 Protests Amid a Triple Crisis (2020, Brookings), where he suggested the start of a long-term revolutionary process in Iran. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and was the winner of 2016/17 post-doctoral fellowship of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Iran Project. 

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 Univ of Cambridge and previously studied at the Univ 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

Alok Raj Gupta is an expert in the field of energy and sustainability economics and brings a rich global consulting experience from projects across the Americas EMEA and Asia including multi-lateral agencies (e.g. UNDP UNFCCC Water Aid Action Aid and DFID) governments departments (e.g. India Mexico United States Nepal and Australia) and energy majors (e.g. Saudi Aramco BP Vattenfall and Siemens). He has published over a 100 papers articles and essays and has conducted talks on a wide range of energy and sustainability issues. Alok was the Country Manager for Boston Strategies International (2011-2016) before founding Envecologic an energy &: sustainability think tank and capacity building firm in 2017. He holds a BA degree in Economics from University of Delhi and MS in Environment &: Resource Economics from TERI University.

Dr. Alvite Ningthoujam is an Assistant Professor at the Symbiosis School of International Studies (SSIS) Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune Maharashtra. Prior to this he served as Consultant (Strategic Affairs) at the National Security Council Secretariat Prime Ministers Office New Delhi. He holds PhD from the Centre for West Asian Studies School of International Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi. His research interests include Israels military exports Israeli foreign policy and its relations with the Southeast and East Asian countries Indo-Israeli relations Indias ties with the Middle Eastern countries and Sino-Middle Eastern cooperation.

Ambalika Guha is a former Senior Research Assistant at Observer Research FoundationKolkata. After graduating from Presidency College in History, she pursued her Master's Degree from the University of Calcutta. She specialises on public health, and reproductive health, in particular. She is a member of New Zealand Asia Society. Her recent publications include ‘BBIN: Less Euphoria, more realism’ (The Indian Economist, September 4, 2016); and ‘The ‘Masculine' Female: The Rise of Women Doctors in Colonial India’, c.1870-1940 (Social Scientist, Vol.44, Nos.5-6, May-June 2016, pp.49-64).

Ambar Khawaja is a Master’s student studying Public Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has a background in international development across South Asia and Africa and her research focuses on South Asia - Middle East relations and the dynamics of humanitarian aid.

Ambar Kumar Ghosh is an Associate Fellow under the Political Reforms and Governance Initiative at ORF Kolkata. His primary areas of research interest include studying Indian democracy and its institutions federalism political leadership citizenship and migration studies.

He is presently pursuing his PhD on “Populist Politics and Indian Democracy” at the department of International Relations, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has previously served as a Guest Faculty at the department of Political Science, Siliguri College, Siliguri, West Bengal. He has presented academic papers in national and international workshops and conferences. His recent publications include “The COVID-19 Challenge to Indian Federalism” (co-authored), “Trans-border Migration: Bridging the Gap between State and Human Security” (co-authored) and “Paradox of ‘Centralised Federalism’: An Analysis of the Challenges to India’s Federal Design”.

Ambika Sondhi graduated from the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences with majors in Political Science and French and a minor in Economics. Her publications feature in the Eagleton Political Journal and the Hamiltonian. She has interned in Washington, D.C. at the Alexander Hamilton Society and at the Plangere Writing Center at Rutgers University. Under Professor Eric Davis at Rutgers University, she conducted research on the rise of ethno-nationalist populism in Western liberal democracies.