Meet our Chevening India Cyber Security Fellows 2021-2022

This fellowship delivered at Cranfield University at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, provides fellows with an understanding of policy and legislative approaches in cyber security and its implications for national security, commercial opportunity, crime prevention, and the right to privacy.

Meenal Maheshwari Shah

Director - Legal, GoodWorker Technologies Private Limited

General Counsel with 12 years of work experience in leading legal strategy and structuring, and legal teams. Currently, I am a part of the executive team of GoodWorker and Affinidi India (Temasek group companies). Being a keen believer in technology, I have deep experience in implementing legal technology for companies.

Shobha Jagathpal

Managing Director, India CISO, India Head Technology, Operations Risk and Firm Resilience at Morgan Stanley

Shobha has over two decades of security domain experience. A traditional Indian women, engineer by profession, Shobha has worked in international companies to build security teams and is passionate about creating a secure cyber world. Enabling cross cultural collaboration, cyber awareness and supporting social causes are her other interests.

Chithralekha Balamurugn

Professor of Department of Computer Science and Dean of School of Engineering & Technology at Pondicherry Central University, India

Dr Chithralekha Balamurugan specialises in cyber security in topics relating to cryptography, access control, cyberattacks, cyber insurance and IoT security.

Karthik Rao Bappanad

Centre Head, CySecK

I'm a technologist with an interest in public policy. I like to work in the intersection of technology, policy and ethics. I currently head CySecK - Karnataka state’s Cyber Security Centre of Excellence. My current area of interest is cyber security as a public good.

""

Piyush K Baranwal

Senior Manager, Government of India

Piyush has done his master's in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. His post-graduate thesis was on the design of a battalion management system for the Indian army. He has carried out varied roles in the field of cyber security at the Indian navy. In his spare time, he likes to go angling and play racket games.

""

Aprajita Rana

Partner, AZB & Partners, India

Aprajita Rana is an India qualified corporate lawyer. She is currently a Partner with a leading law firm in India, AZB & Partners, Delhi. She is part of the corporate, data protection and security, e-commerce, and charities practice in AZB.

Junaid Hakeem

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Jammu & Kashmir Police

Junaid has a BE in IT from DCE Delhi, MPA. He has over a decade of experience in investigation, law and order, and counter-terrorism, with over five years of experience dealing with cyber issues mainly focusing on social media from an LEA perspective. He works with the MeITY, MHA, and tech giants.

Karan Kalra

Deputy Director, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

Karan has more than ten years of leadership experience in policy, risk management, governance, information security and development of cyber-resilient systems. He is also a member of the committee steering the Defence India Startup Challenge, selecting and mentoring start-ups developing futuristic products/technologies.

Surendra Sharma

Principal Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft

Commander Surendra Sharma is a naval veteran with more than 20 years of leadership experience in electronic engineering, IT, and cybersecurity domains. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Naval College of Engineering (EEE), IIT Madras (CSE) and Masaryk University (IT security) in the Czech Republic.

""

Binoy Joseph

Cyber crime investigator at Cyber crime investigation cell, Kochi City Police

Binoy Joseph is a serving police officer in Kerala State working with the Cyberdome Kochi, with over 22 years of experience in various IT and cyber security roles in Kerala Police. He has played a major role in setting up the first cyber crime investigation cell in Kerala at Kochi City in the year 2008 which was later replicated to the other districts in Kerala.

" "

Sandhya Sharma

Editor - Technology Policy and Foreign Policy, Economic Times (Prime)

A policy professional in the technology world with over decade and a half years of work experience in Foreign Policy and Technology Policy. Currently, I am part of the Times Group of companies and report exclusively for Economic Times at the intersection of Foreign Policy, National Security and Technology Policy. I have keen interest in Cyber activities of China as a journalist.

Chevening India Cyber Security Fellowship

Find out more about the programme

Click here