Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
मनोहर पर्रिकर रक्षा अध्ययन एवं विश्लेषण संस्थान

Uttam Kumar Sinha

Uttam Kumar Sinha is a leading scholar and commentator on transboundary rivers, climate change and the Arctic. He was Co-Chair of the Think-20 Task Force on ‘Accelerating SDGs: Exploring New Pathways to the 2030 Agenda’ during India’s G20 Presidency. After a brief stint in the print media and a doctoral degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he joined the MP-IDSA in 2001, where he coordinates the Non-Traditional Security Centre and is the Managing Editor of Strategic Analysis published by Routledge, the institute’s flagship journal. He is a recipient of many fellowships and leadership programmes including senior fellow at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (2018-2020); Academic Visitor at the Harvard Kennedy School (2015); Chevening ‘Gurukul’ leadership at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008) and a visiting fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (2006). His recently published work is Trial By Water: Indus Basin and India-Pakistan Relations (Penguin 2025); BBIN Sub-Region: Perspectives on Climate-water-Energy Nexus (Pentagon Press, 2023), Indus Basin Interrupted: A History of Territory and Politics from Alexander to Nehru (Penguin, 2021). His other works include the Riverine Neighbourhood: Hydro-politics in South Asia (Pentagon Press, 2016) and Climate Change Narratives: Reading the Arctic (2014). His edited and co-edited volumes include Modi: Energising a Green Future (Pentagon, 2023); Modi: Shaping a Global Order in Flux (Wisdom Tree, 2023); MODI 2.0: A Resolve To Secure India (Pentagon Press, 2021); The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in India’s Foreign Policy (Wisdom Tree, 2016); Non-Traditional Security Challenges in Asia: Approaches and Responses (Routledge, 2015); Arctic: Commerce, Governance and Policy (Routledge, 2015) and Emerging Strategic Trends in Asia (Pentagon Press, 2015).
Senior Fellow

Publication

BR Ambedkar Pioneering Role in Water Management

Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam K. Sinha’s article ‘BR Ambedkar’s pioneering role in water management’ has been published in ‘Hindustan Times’, on 17 April 2022.

Ambedkar who had once been denied access to water in school due to untouchability, eventually became the principal architect of India’s multi-purpose approach to water resources and water policy, says Dr Sinha.

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What India’s Arctic policy Aims to Do

Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s Opinion Piece ‘What India’s Arctic policy aims to do’ has been published in Hindustan Times on 21 March 2022.

The 27-page policy, a product of inter-ministerial and inter-disciplinary thinking, reflects, at one level, that developments in the Arctic need to be seen through diverse perspectives. At another, it marks a culmination of India’s polar legacy, says Dr Sinha.

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History within history: 25 years of the Ganga Treaty

Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr. Uttam Sinha’s opinion piece on ‘25-years of Ganga Treaty’ was published in Hindustan Times, on December 12, 2021.

Twenty-five years ago, in New Delhi, Prime Ministers (PMs) HD Deve Gowda and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh signed a treaty on the sharing of the Ganga waters at Farraka. The governments viewed the treaty, valid for 30 years, as an outcome that would bolster future cooperation, says Dr. Sinha.

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