Colonel Prem Kumar Nair (retired) was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery of the Indian Army in Jun 1975 and retired in Aug 2007. He is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Indian Military Academy, Military College of Telecommunication Engineering, School of Artillery, College of Combat (now Army War College), Pune University and Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

He has held numerous staff appointments, including Brigade Major of an Artillery Brigade and General Staff Officer Grade 2 and Grade 1 at the Weapons and Equipment Directorate of the Army HQ. He has held instructional appointments at the School of Artillery on three occasions, including in the Tactical Wing, Field Wing and the Faculty of Studies.

He has been instrumental in pioneering work for many new concepts in equipment design while at the Army HQ and has at least two General Staff publications to his credit.

He was the Commanding Officer of a Field Regiment in the Kargil Sector in 1995-96 and a Medium Regiment during Op Vijay in 1999 and Op Parakram 2001-02 in the Western Desert. He has also been part of the team that did pioneering work to create India’s second Artillery Division.

His research paper on India’s Nuclear Doctrine, a seminal work on the subject, was well received in the service and strategic environment and remained a primer for all those interested in this subject, whether civil or military. The work is being updated and will be in the public domain by the end of 2021.

He has an interest in innovation and design and in the use of technology to achieve ends. He has conceptualised many military systems and holds product patents of the USA, China (PRC) and India.