He studied at Bishop Cotton School, Simla. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Defence Services Staff College, he was a founding member and Chief Instructor of the College of Naval Warfare at Karanja, Mumbai. He has also been on the Directing Staff of the Staff College and Chief Instructor of the Navigation & Direction School.

A specialist in Navigation & Direction and diving, he has navigated several ships, controlled aircraft from the carrier and commanded three major IN Ships. He has been the Additional Director General of the National Cadet Corps, Flag Officer Offshore Defence (FODAG), Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) and the Assistant Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), Joint Operations, Information Warfare and Weapon Systems.

He commanded a ship in the 1971 Indo Pak war in the Eastern Theatre and was a member of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka in 1988 where he was awarded ‘Mention in Dispatches’ for gallantry during operations. Subsequently he was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for exemplary service by the President.

He is an MSc from Madras University and an MBA from another prestigious B school in Mumbai. After doing an MPhil from Mumbai University on “Energy Security”, was awarded PhD from the same University for his thesis on ‘The Strategic Significance of Oil and Gas for the Security of India’. He is an amateur historian and a member of the Indian History Congress.

He is a member of two prestigious institutions dealing with strategic and security matters, the USI, New Delhi, and the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses also in New Delhi. He regularly contributes articles on national security and strategy to professional journals and reads papers at national and international seminars.

He is on the Board of Directors of a think tank ‘Peace Operations Institute’ in Washington DC.

He is a yachtsman of national stature; a qualified International Race Officer, a national judge and is currently the Hon Treasurer of the Yachting Association of India. He is an avid golfer. He is married and has two sons, both bankers.