Ministry of Defense – India

PRINCIPAL ADVISER

Lt Gen VG Khandare joined the Indian Army training in 1978. He served as an Army officer for nearly four decades till Jan 2018. He has vast experience at all levels of varied terrains and various operational roles in the region. His military career has seen him in many combat actions. He has had a stint in UN Peacekeeping in Central America and as the Chief Instructor in an Indian Training Team in Southern Africa for three years.

Post superannuation from the Army in 2018 he served in the national security structure of the Government till May 2025 initially as Military Adviser at National Security Council Secretariat from 2018 to 2021 and then as Principal Adviser at Ministry of Defence from 2022 to 2025, helping the Government through many situations and for many policies.
He has vast experience in handling military affairs and comprehensive security issues. He has been advising the apex level on decision making based on analyses and assessments. In 2021 he led a Govt delegation to Nigeria for promotion of better defence relations in Western Africa.

He has enhanced synergy between technical and human intelligence at tactical, operational and Strategic level. He has carried out various intelligence exercises with many foreign militaries.
He is an expert in capability and capacity enhancement and he has promoted Defence Diplomacy by his relentless initiatives. He is an avid thinker in Conflict Prevention, Conflict Management and Conflict Termination as also in technology search.

The President of India awarded him for his gallantry and for his distinguished service a number of prestigious medals. He was a UN Military Observer in 1993- 94 in El Salvador where he was awarded the UN Medal. In 2024, He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by his school at Indore. Closely following that he was awarded D Litt by Ajinkya DY Patil University at Pune.

Currently he is Distinguished Fellow at United Services Institution (USI) New Delhi and Emeritus Research Faculty with Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) Gandhinagar. He is associated with various Think Tanks and Foundations. He is committed to shaping the youth as the national Human Resource capital for the present and future. He is working on ancient and mediaeval period wisdom lessons derived from history for the military and non military way forward in nation building.

He has trained thousands of Indian and foreign military officers and subordinate personnel. He has been instrumental in initiating many reforms in the military, defence production and defence diplomacy. He is considered to be an authority in new wars using Cyber, Space, Information Warfare, Bio and Chem Security. He has co-authored a book “Data Sovereignty”. He has written many articles and given many interviews at national and international level. He actively lectures and writes on security issues and national development. He pursues research on comprehensive National Security and Civil Military Fusion. He is working towards technology search and infusion in the Armed Forces.