About Me

Colonel Ajai Shukla (Retired)

 

Colonel Ajai Shukla (Retired) is a columnist, commentator and journalist who covers regional security issues in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, military technology and India’s defence economy. He writes primarily for Business Standard, India’s most respected business daily, but also for The New York Times, Guardian, BBC, Al Jazeera and South China Morning Post.

Over the past two decades, he has written more than 300 opinion pieces and over 1,500 news analysis reports, all of which are posted and archived on this website. Broadsword is visited daily by thousands of readers from across the world, including analysts and policymakers from multiple governments.

Ajai Shukla is also a commentator on Indian and international news television. He has extensive experience in the medium, having worked earlier as a prime-time news anchor and war correspondent with New Delhi Television (NDTV) from 2001-2008. In that period, he reported the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria as well as India’s myriad internal security conflicts.

Ajai Shukla also lectures in various forums and establishments, including military War Colleges, universities and schools and lecture groups.

Before taking up journalism, Ajai served in the military, in a combat arm, for over two decades before opting for voluntary retirement at the rank of colonel. His last assignment was in command of one of India’s most storied tank regiments, Hodson’s Horse. During his military career from 1979-2001, Ajai served on India’s conflicted borders with China and Pakistan, including in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. He also served for a year with the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Mozambique.

Ajai Shukla did his schooling in The Lawrence School, Sanawar near Shimla, in north India. He did his military training in the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla (55^th Course, 1976-1978) and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun (65 ^th Course, 1979), from where he was commissioned as an officer into the armoured corps. He did his graduation from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has post-graduate degrees from Madras University and the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London.