Muskan Rai is a Research Associate at the Delhi Policy Group (DPG). Her research centres on maritime security and regional cooperation within the Indian Ocean Region, with specific emphasis on multilateral frameworks including the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), BIMSTEC, and the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), as well as India’s broader maritime and foreign policy objectives. She obtained a Master of Arts in International Relations, Security and Strategy from the Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) at O.P. Jindal Global University, and completed her Bachelor of Arts in History at Ramjas College, University of Delhi.
Before joining DPG, she worked at the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi, where she progressed from Research Intern to Junior Research Associate and then Research Associate. At NMF, she was the lead researcher on IORA and BIMSTEC and also headed the Foundation’s Business Development function, which covered institutional collaborations, CSR partnerships and commissioned research. Her published work includes policy briefs, articles and book reviews. Among these are an audit of the contributions of IORA’s Dialogue Partners, an assessment of India’s IORA Chairmanship, and a proposed roadmap for operationalising the IORA–BIMSTEC MoU. Her wider research interests include maritime history, colonial-era cartography and pre-colonial Indian seafaring traditions.