Amitabh Mathur served for 32 years as a career intelligence official rising to the top echelons of India’s national security apparatus. He was Special Secretary, R&AW before he was selected to head the Aviation Research Centre, a federal technical intelligence organisation under the Government of India’s Cabinet Secretariat.
In his three decades as a career intelligence professional, he specialised on the Pakistan and Afghanistan and the armed militancy in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
He also served as the station chief handling sensitive international security issues with his counterparts in Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. During the Maoist insurgency in Nepal between 2002 and 2007, he also handled the country desk. He was central to negotiations that led to stabilising bilateral relations between India and Nepal.
As a diplomat he has served in the Indian embassies in Beirut, Paris, Dhaka and London and has forged extensive relationships with his counterparts and experts across the globe.
Post retirement he was appointed by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a Special Adviser to the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. He advised on the international ramifications posed by terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, Left Wing Extremism and Tibetan and Buddhist affairs. In this role he forged a close relationship with Tibetan government-in-exile as well as His Holiness, The Dalai Lama and other religious leaders.
As a Co-Founder of DeepStrat, he brings decades of experience as a security and risk mitigation specialist, intelligence and diplomat as well as his extensive connections in South Asia.