Winning Essay: “Heads you win, tails I lose: India at the crosshairs of great power tech rivalry ”

Lokendra Sharma is a Staff Research Analyst working with the High-Tech Geopolitics Programme at the Takshashila Institution in Bengaluru. Broadly interested in technology geopolitics, he closely follows and writes about developments in cyber and nuclear domains. At Takshashila, he focuses on technological sovereignty and explores how India can script her technological future. He has bylines in The Hindu, India’s World, South Asian Voices, Moneycontrol, NDTV and Deccan Herald among other platforms. He has also published in academic journals such as the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region and Journal of Cyber Policy.

Winning Essay: “From The Seas To The Summits India’s Vision For The Third Pole”

Aarushi Shekhar Barthwal is currently a student at University of Oxford pursuing her MSc in Modern South Asian Studies. She is a recipient of the Chevening Scholarship awarded by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Her postgraduate thesis at Oxford focuses on India’s foreign policy in the Indo Pacific under the academic supervision of Professor Kate Sullivan. Her areas of interest include power politics of the Indo-Pacific, and non traditional non-military securitisation in international relations.

Winning Essay: “Striving for Energy Security: India’s Stabilizing Potential in the Global Energy Transition”

Shreyas Shende is a Senior Research Associate at the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University. He works on industrial policy and the geopolitics of the energy transition, with a regional focus on India. He was previously at Carnegie India where he managed the Director’s office and worked on South Asian security issues. He has co-authored a book chapter on the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), India’s external intelligence agency, and a working paper on the implications of the Taliban’s rise for India. His work has appeared in Lawfare, The Diplomat, ThePrint, South Asian Voices, among other