Prof NIRMALA Joshi is Director of the India-Central Asia Foundation New Delhi India.  She was professor at the Centre for Russian, Central Asian and East European Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prof. Joshi has been the member of the Indo-Russian Joint Commission for Cooperation in Social Sciences. She is member of the Standing Committee of the University Grant Commission of India. Her major areas of research are foreign and security policy, democratisation and energy security of Russia, Central Asia and South Caucasus. She is the author of Indo-Soviet Relations: Unofficial Attitudes and Contacts 1917-47 and has edited Central Asia: The Great Game Replayed An Indian Perspective.