Dr. Arvind Gupta was Director General of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA; now renamed as the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses) from 5th January, 2012 to 7th August 2014.
He holds a PhD in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; M.Sc. in Physics from Delhi University. He was Visiting Member at the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (1974-76) and served at the Oil & Natural Gas Commission (1976) and at the State Bank of India (1976-79) before joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1979.
Held the Lal Bahadur Shastri Chair on National Security at the IDSA from 2008 to 2011.
He has three books, several edited books and a number of academic publications to his credit. He has been a member of several task forces on issues such as space security, climate change, cyber security, nuclear disarmament etc.