Madhav Das Nalapat

Madhav Das Nalapat (M.D. Nalapat) is an Indian academician and columnist. Currently, he is the Editorial Director of Itv network (India) & The Sunday Guardian, Vice-Chair of Manipal Advanced Research Group, and Director of the Department of Geopolitics & International Relations at Manipal University. He has been the Coordinating Editor of the Times of India and editor of the Mathrubhumi. He is the son of renowned author and poet Kamala Surayya.

Nalapat writes extensively on security, policy and international affairs. Apart from his Sunday Guardian column, his writings have been published in a very wide range of publications, including the Pakistan Observer.,Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations ,United Press International , China Daily , The Diplomat , Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty , Economic and Political Weekly , Rediff , & CNN Global Public Square.

He was born to K. Madhava Das and the renowned Malayalam and English writer Kamala Das. Eldest of three brothers, Madhav is married to Princess Lakshmi Bayi of the Royal House of Travancore.

Nalapat is a Gold Medalist in economics from the University of Mumbai.

Nalapat became Editor of the Mathrubhumi, a Malayalam-language newspaper in 1984. Nalapat had earlier been Editorial Director of the Mathrubhumi Group of publications, and previous to that (from 1978), Executive Director of the newspaper company. He continued on the board of directors throughout his tenure in the company.

In 1989 he shifted from Malayalam to English-language journalism, becoming the resident editor of Times of India at Bangalore. In 1994 he moved to Delhi as resident editor of the Times of India. He also worked as Chief of News Bureau in 1995–1997, before becoming contributing editor in end-1998 to concentrate on writing.

The next year, he merged journalism with academics, becoming India's first professor of geopolitics at Manipal University and a distinguished fellow of the University of Georgia. In the past, he has served on the academic councils of Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut and Bangalore universities.

He has contributed to leading publications throughout the world and has written six books, including INDUTVA whose central thesis is that every Indian is a synthesis of Vedic, Moghul and Western cultural DNA and religious exclusivism goes against such an ethos of fusion.

Apart from his work, he has played a key role in the literacy movement in Kerala, as the first honorary coordinator of the Kerala Association for Non-formal Education and Development. He was also the honorary secretary of the Kerala Children's Film Society, which screens educational films for children. He has also been active in environmental issues as honorary secretary of the Kerala Forestry Board, besides other NGOs. He has been active in actions designed to ensure that socially disadvantaged sections of Indian society were enabled to get better – if not equal – treatment, and has not diluted his secular vision of society, believing that the peoples of all faiths need to be given equal treatment in all lands.

The inspiration of the Editor's character in the Malayalam movie 'Vartha' can be traced to him and his short but rather controversial career at Mathrubhumi.

• Editorial Director, Sunday Guardian and Itv network (India)
• Honorary Director and UNESCO Peace Chair, Department of Geopolitics & International Relations, Manipal University
• Foreign Policy expert, Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
• Member of Advisory Board, India, China & America Institute, Georgia
• Member of Resource Board, Center for International Relations, Washington D.C
• Distinguished Fellow, CITS, The University of Georgia
• Member of the Advisory Council, Naveen Hindustan Foundation, New Delhi
• Advisor, Asianet Communications Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram
• Governing Body member, the Abdus Salam Foundation, London
• Life Member, Institute of Social & Economic Change, Bangalore
• Senior Associate, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
• Advisory board member, Institute of Management, Meerut
• Associate member, United Services Institution, New Delhi