US embassy cable - 04NEWDELHI6980

C O N F I D E N T I A L NEW DELHI 006980 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/B 
STATE/PM FOR DAS KARA BUE 
STATE/PM FOR MICHELE MARKOFF 
DOD FOR OASD/NII TIM BLOECHL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2014 
TAGS: PINR, KCIP, TINT, PREL, PGOV, IN, Indo-US 
SUBJECT: INDO-US CYBERSECURITY FORUM: BIO NOTES FOR 
DELEGATION HEADS 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Geoff Pyatt, Reasons 1.4 (B,D). 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary: This cable includes biographic data for 
Arvind Gupta, Joint Secretary, National Security Council 
Secretariat (NSCS), who will lead the GOI delegation to the 
 
SIPDIS 
November 9-10 Cybersecurity Forum in Washington, and his 
deputy, Commander Mukesh Saini.  Unless otherwise specified, 
the below information is derived from official GOI 
biographies.  End Summary. 
 
Joint Secretary Gupta 
--------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Arvind Gupta entered the Indian Foreign Service in 
1979.  His most recent posts were Moscow, London and Ankara, 
and before that, he was Under Secretary and then Deputy 
Secretary in the Afghanistan division of the Ministry of 
 
SIPDIS 
External Affairs (1984-89).  Since September 1999, Gupta has 
been working as Joint Secretary in the NSCS.  He is also the 
Co-Chairman of the Indo-US Cybersecurity Forum. 
 
3.  (C) According to his visa application and passport 
information, among Gupta's recent official trips are the 
following: 
 
-- March-April 1995: United States 
-- June 2003: Russia 
-- September-October 2003: Russia and Germany 
-- October 2003: Poland 
-- November 2003: Russia 
 
Gupta has also held visas for Jordan (2003) and Israel (2003) 
but travel to those countries is not confirmed. 
 
4.  (C) Gupta was born on 10 July 1953 in Nurpur, Himachal 
Pradesh.  His wife, Purnima Malhotra Gupta, was born on 27 
August 1954 in Madhya Pradesh.  She works for the GOI 
Planning Commission. 
 
Deputy Director (Information Security) Saini 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) Commander Saini, who heads the National Information 
Security Coordination Cell at the NSCS, is responsible for 
coordinating the activities of the National Information 
Board, implementing recommendations from the Information 
Security Task Force, and managing sectoral cybersecurity 
officers.  Saini is also a member of various joint working 
groups, including the Indo-US Cyber Security Forum; the 
E-Governance and Information Security JWG; the Next 
Generation Internet Protocol JWG; and the Indo-Canada 
Counterterrorism JWG. 
 
6.  (SBU) A serving naval officer on special assignment to 
the NSCS, Saini is a specialist in communications and 
electronic warfare.  In the Indian Navy, Saini served in 
various command and staff positions.  He was Deputy 
Director/Naval Signals (Telecommunications and Networking) 
prior to his present appointment. 
 
7.  (SBU) Saini is a 1983 graduate of the National Defense 
Academy and hold three postgraduate degrees: Master of 
Science in Defense and Strategic Studies; Master of Business 
Administration; and Master of Computer Applications.  He is 
also a graduate of the Defense Services Staff College. 
MULFORD