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Ava M. Haidar is a second-year undergraduate student at Ashoka University where she intends to study politics. She worked on this brief while she was an intern at ORF.

Avinash Pandey is a civil servant in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Government of India. His diverse experience spans taxation, international trade and commerce, digital transformation, strategic enforcement, and public leadership. With a multidisciplinary academic background in engineering, liberal studies, and internet studies, he brings a unique perspective to public service and governance.

Avinash has been recognised by the Chairman, CBIC and the Special Secretary to the Government of India for his contributions. He is a recipient of the Young India Fellowship (Ashoka University), Raisina Young Fellowship (Raisina Dialogue), and Asian Forum on Global Governance (Ministry of External Affairs, ORF, and Stiftung Mercator) and Indo-German Young Leaders Forum. He was also named a NEXT Milan Future Leader in the Civil Servant category by ISPI, Bocconi University, and OECD.

His work has been presented at international forums, including those hosted by UN SDSN, IIM Bangalore, and AJNIFM. His articles have appeared in the World Customs Organisation (WCO)’s Asia Pacific Publication, The Print, Sunday Guardian, and Financial Express, among others.

Ayjaz Wani (Phd) is a Fellow in the Strategic Studies Programme at ORF. Based out of Mumbai, he tracks China’s relations with Central Asia, Pakistan and the Uyghur Muslim minorities of China’s Xinjiang province. In addition, Dr Wani tracks India-Central Asia relations, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and connectivity projects in the region including Chabahar and International North-South Transport Corridor.  He has an abiding interest in Kashmir affairs and is well-versed in region’s security dynamics including terrorism and radicalisation. Dr Wani is a member of the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs and has written extensively in national newspapers like The Hindu, Business Standard, Money control, Firstpost and others.

He is widely published in international and national peer reviewed journals.

He has received fellowships from Xinjiang Social Science Academy in Urumchi, Xinjiang; and the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi. Wani is also a EUCAIS fellow where he undertook a two-year programme — “The European Union and Central Asia in the International System.”

Ayoade Alakija is a Chair, Board of Directors, FIND; Co-Chair, G7 Impact Investment Initiative on Global Health.

Ayush Bhardwaj is a research intern at ORF Kolkata. They have a a particular interest in Bangladesh, political epistemology, the moral responsibility of artificial agents (i.e., AI). They are an Organising Committee Member of the Critical Political Epistemology Network (CPEN). Their interest in IR pertains to Social Constructivism and South Asia. 

They have worked on a Political Theory and AI Project at the Infosys Centre for Artificial Intelligence, IIIT-D and as an Executive Administrator at the Organisation for Research on China and Asia (ORCA), Delhi NCR. Ayush is a 2024 Fellow in the Jan Suraaj Young Leaders Program. They have taught Political Theory at Vision Academy, Udaipur, and Pt. Udai Jain College, Jawahar Vidhyapeeth, MLSU, Udaipur. 

Ayyappan Rajesh is a cybersecurity professional specialising in wireless security and cyber-physical systems.He is actively involved with the Car Hacking Village, a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing education and raising awareness about security within the automotive industry.

Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan Non-Resident Senior Fellow National Council of Applied Economic Research

Bai Lianlei is an Associate Research Fellow at China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) in Beijing China. His research focuses on South Asian affairs with interests in Pakistans role in Afghanistan China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) China-India-Pakistan interactions in regional and global arena and Indias role in Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Central Asia.

Balwant Singh Mehta is Fellow at Institute for Human Development (IHD) and Co-Founder &: Visiting Senior Fellow at Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI) New Delhi.

Bantirani Patro is a Research Associate at the Centre for Aerospace Power and Strategic Studies, New Delhi, India. She was a 2024-25 Network for Advanced Study of Pakistan (NASP) Fellow at the Takshashila Institution, Bangalore. She holds a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Delhi, and has previously interned at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies and the Indian Council of World Affairs. Her research areas include the Af-Pak region with a broader focus on South Asian politics.

Barbara Kratiuk is an Assistant Professor at Vistula University in Poland, researching Indo-Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Barbarita Lara Martnez is a Chilean researcher coder social entrepreneur and computer engineer. She is currently the CEO and co-founder of EMERCOM a technology company which develops communications solutions. She is also the Chief of the Sistema de Informacin de Emergencia Proyect (Emergency Information System) which allows emergency messages to be sent and relayed to populations affected by a natural disaster even when there is no access to an Internet connection or mobile networks.

Basu Chandola is an Associate Fellow. His areas of research include competition law, interface of intellectual property rights and competition law, and tech policy.

Basu has previously worked as a researcher at the Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition, O.P. Jindal Global University, and at the School of Competition Law & Market Regulation, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. Before joining ORF, Basu was working as a competition lawyer.

After graduating with a master's degree in molecular biology from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, Benedikt worked for several years as a programme director for future leaders in the former Soviet Union. He then embarked on a PhD in experimental economics at the University of Göttingen, researching the nature of civil cooperation in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. As a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, he studied trust behaviour in Gulf countries. In 2008, he joined the European Commission (EC), first working on the economic analysis of the EU Member States' research and innovation policies. From 2011 to 2016, he established the 'Behavioural Economics Team' at the EC's Joint Research Centre. During experimental research into tax compliance in EU member states, his team recognised the importance of local taxes as a potential driver of economic growth and tax compliance. This work led to his secondment to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he provided analytical support for the country's decentralisation reform from 2016 to 2020. Since returning to the Joint Research Centre, he has been working on local revenue structures and territorial development. He has published work in various scientific fields, with his articles appearing in journals such as Science, the American Economic Review and Materials Science and Engineering.

Benjamin Tkach is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Mississippi State University. His research agenda focuses on the causes and consequences of security privatization evolution of defense policy and non-state actor involvement in conflict. His research has been supported by the United States Agency for International Development and the Joint Special Operations University.

Bertil Lintner is Bangkok-based correspondent for Asia Times Hong Kong. He is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review.