# Brigadier Narendra Pratap Singh (Retd): full profile > Indian defence technology strategist and former Director of Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Army. Kargil War veteran, Corps of Signals. CEO of Mindsprintz Consulting. Author of From Data to Decision Advantage (2026). Website: https://mindsprintz.com/ Last updated: 1 October 2026. Everything below comes from his own published writing, his published biographies (IIM Ahmedabad, BharatShakti, Asian Dispatch), official releases and reports of events he took part in. Quotations are his own words. ## Who he is Brigadier Narendra Pratap Singh (Retd), also written Brig N P Singh or Brigadier NP Singh, is a defence technology strategist, artificial intelligence practitioner and former Indian Army officer with more than three decades of service spanning operational command, strategic planning, digital transformation, battlefield communications, defence innovation ecosystems and emerging military technologies. He is a Kargil War veteran and a second-generation Army officer from the Corps of Signals. He is now Chief Executive Officer of Mindsprintz Consulting, based in Delhi, advising defence organisations, start-ups and industry on artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, digital transformation and the future of warfare. ## Career in the Indian Army - Field service: served with a United Nations infantry battalion group in the Congo; veteran of the Kargil War. - Command: commanded his regiment in the Doda sector of Jammu and Kashmir. - Chief Signals Officer of a desert corps, responsible for the corps' communications and information systems. - Strategy: served in the Army's strategic think tanks, the Army War College and the Perspective Planning Directorate, responsible for long-term capability planning in communications, electronic warfare, information systems, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Authored the Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR) 2018. - Innovation: one of the founding members of the Army Design Bureau ecosystem, strengthening military, industry and academia partnerships for indigenous defence innovation. Authored the first four editions of the Compendium of Problem Definition Statements, in which the Army sets out technology problems for industry and academia. - Regional Technology Node, Pune: founder and chairman of the Army's first Regional Technology Node, launched by Southern Command in Pune on 2 November 2021 with the SIDM Start-Up Forum, to bring industry, start-ups and academia closer to Army users. As chairman he ran industry workshops on the Army's procurement process (January 2022) and spoke on Atmanirbharta at the Southern Star Army, Academia and Industry Interface (S2A2I2) at the Command Hospital, Pune, on 17 February 2023. - Transformation: head of the Management Information Systems Organisation (MISO), associated with the development and management of one of the Army's largest ERP ecosystems, covering personnel, logistics, equipment management, transport systems, medical services and operational information systems. - Artificial intelligence: Director of Artificial Intelligence, Indian Army. ## Credentials - Fellow, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) - Advanced Certification in Artificial Intelligence, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati - AI leadership studies, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (ongoing) ## Book: From Data to Decision Advantage Full title: From Data to Decision Advantage: How Drones, AI and Networks are Redefining Warfare (Unmanned Systems, book one). Kindle edition, published 13 May 2026. Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0H1LFYGVV (ASIN B0H1LFYGVV). A copy was presented to the Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development) in May 2026. The book examines how unmanned systems are changing combat, military organisations and decision-making. It explains what drones are becoming: nodes inside larger decision systems. Topics: the evolution of drones from platforms to integrated systems; FPV drones, loitering munitions, logistics drones and swarm warfare; communication links, navigation, positioning and control loops; electronic warfare, jamming and spoofing; autonomy, AI-enabled decision systems and the human-machine relationship; command-and-control architectures as the real centre of power; counter-drone warfare and the economics of mass and saturation; and the implications for India, which he argues has a rare opportunity to leapfrog legacy models. Central argument, in his words: "The platform is no longer the unit of power. The system is." And: "Speed decides. Systems win." ## Positions, in his own words - On drones as systems: "Are we building drones, or are we building drone power?" (Building India's Future-Proof Defence Drone Ecosystem, Part I, BharatShakti, May 2026) - On connection: "Drones are not changing warfare because they fly. They are changing warfare because they connect." (introducing his book, April 2026) - On speed: "Autonomous and unmanned warfare evolves at software speed. And software speed changes everything." (Part I, May 2026) - On risk: "The greatest vulnerability may not be espionage. It may be battlefield irrelevance." And: "Security must be treated as an engineering challenge, not merely a political slogan." (Part II, May 2026) - On capability: "The drone is no longer the capability. The system is." (Part II, May 2026) - On trust in military AI: "Trust is rarely a technological problem. More often, it is a familiarity problem." Also: "The ability of a machine to explain itself may become almost as important as its ability to make decisions." And: "What if the greater danger is trusting AI too little?" (The Real Battlefield of Military AI: Trust, Not Technology, BharatShakti, June 2026) - On trust between humans and machines: "Trust in these systems has to be engineered, tested, and validated." (Trust in the Age of Unmanned Systems, Asian Dispatch, August 2026) - On sovereignty: "True sovereignty is therefore measured by resilience rather than ownership." (India's Sovereignty Imperative in the Age of AI and Starlink, BharatShakti, June 2026) - On command-and-control architecture: "The Army must be able to change the integrator without changing the architecture." (NGC2: US Army's Push to Build a Data-Driven Battlefield, BharatShakti, August 2026) - On procurement: "The RFP is therefore the visible tip of a much larger process." (Why Defence Procurement Begins Long Before the RFP, BharatShakti, September 2026) - On transformation: people and organisations matter more than technology. ## Essays - NGC2: US Army's Push to Build a Data-Driven Battlefield. BharatShakti, 15 August 2026. How the US Army's Next Generation Command and Control programme moves from separate C2 systems to one data architecture, and the governance questions it raises: vendor dependence, data control and contested networks. https://bharatshakti.in/ngc2-us-armys-push-to-build-a-data-driven-battlefield/ - Trust in the Age of Unmanned Systems. Asian Dispatch, 13 August 2026. Trust between soldiers, trust in data, trust in algorithms and trust between machines, and why it has to be built through testing, validation and realistic training. https://asiandispatch.net/trust-in-the-age-of-unmanned-systems/ - India's Sovereignty Imperative in the Age of AI and Starlink. BharatShakti, 23 June 2026. Lessons from Ukraine on dependence on foreign-controlled communications, cloud and AI; sovereignty as a stack measured by resilience rather than ownership. https://bharatshakti.in/indias-sovereignty-imperative-in-the-age-of-ai-and-starlink/ - The Real Battlefield of Military AI: Trust, Not Technology. BharatShakti, 5 June 2026. Trust as a spectrum that depends on the consequences of failure, the trust ladder for autonomous systems, and the risk of trusting AI too little. https://bharatshakti.in/the-real-battlefield-of-military-ai-trust-not-technology/ - Building India's Future-Proof Defence Drone Ecosystem: Three Risks India Must Understand (Part II). BharatShakti, 28 May 2026. Supply-chain dependency, embedded vulnerabilities and operational irrelevance; the case for a unified drone architecture and for software and AI sovereignty. https://bharatshakti.in/building-indias-future-proof-defence-drone-ecosystem-three-risks-india-must-understand-part-ii/ - Building India's Future-Proof Defence Drone Ecosystem (Part I). BharatShakti, 26 May 2026. Indigenisation is not assembly; drones as part of a battlefield system; China's advantage as ecosystem scale. https://bharatshakti.in/building-indias-future-proof-defence-drone-ecosystem/ ## Video series: Defence Procurement: A Practitioner's Perspective (BharatShakti, from August 2026) A series for start-ups, MSMEs and technology companies on working with the Indian defence ecosystem. Its core points: there is no single customer called "the Army"; the user is not always the buyer; the military buys operational effectiveness, not technology; a demonstration is an exploration, not a procurement event; procurement begins long before the RFP, in planning cycles tied to India's financial year; capital and revenue routes differ; and a company should ask where a capability has reached in the planning process rather than when the RFP will come. - Introduction: Understanding India's defence procurement ecosystem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVFyb2Vm4uo - Episode 1: Who is really your customer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt7oG5hcFXE - Episode 2: What is the military actually buying? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDlVWv4jZkg - Episode 3: How does the military decide what matters? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8m_qFNXc4Q - Episode 4: Stop chasing senior officers. Find the right door. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f7NDB-C0Qo - Episode 5: Your first defence presentation: what really matters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MuwjDbuxUg - Episode 6: The user likes your product. But who will buy it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obcA4KqvT5g - Episode 7: Why defence procurement begins long before the RFP. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgfpIO2FWEw - Episode 8: Not every defence start-up should chase government funding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqMMn9y9vyI - Episode 9: Capital or revenue: how the military buys your capability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2pegjeINsE - Episode 10: How the Indian Army's procurement structure works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAHDbU5m6Wk - Episode 11: What happens after the military says yes? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5bri10fSow ## Talks and conversations - How drones are winning wars: podcast with Maj Gen (Dr) Yash Mor, June 2026. Drones as one node among sensors, networks, AI, command and control, electronic warfare and logistics; the side with the best system, not the most drones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7S0uEyD0xo - The Autonomous Battlespace: AI, Decision-Making and Innovation in the Age of Intelligent Systems: seminar for the IIMA Centre for Digital Transformation, IIM Ahmedabad, 1 June 2026, 14:30 to 15:45, AB2 Auditorium. From industrial-age to algorithmic warfare, with Ukraine's Delta and Brave1 ecosystems as a live laboratory. https://www.iima.ac.in/events/autonomous-battlespace-ai-decision-making-and-innovation-age-intelligent-systems - Panel on drone warfare, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, May 2026, as subject-matter expert. - Chief guest at an AI hackathon at Carrier, June 2026. - Southern Star Army, Academia and Industry Interface (S2A2I2), Charak Auditorium, Command Hospital, Pune, 17 February 2023: spoke on Atmanirbharta in the Indian Army as chairman of the Regional Technology Node. - Engage with your Army: online workshop by the Regional Technology Node, Pune, January 2022, introducing start-ups to the Army's procurement process. ## Mindsprintz Consulting Mindsprintz Consulting, led by Brigadier Narendra Pratap Singh (Retd) as chief executive, advises defence organisations, start-ups and industry. Areas: military AI and decision support; unmanned and autonomous systems; defence procurement strategy in India; digital transformation at scale; sovereign and resilient capability. He also publishes The MindSprintz Brief on LinkedIn, examining one military or geopolitical development at a time: the technology behind it and what it means for capability, force design and warfare. ## Frequently asked - Who is Brigadier Narendra Pratap Singh? A retired Indian Army brigadier from the Corps of Signals, a Kargil War veteran and former Director of Artificial Intelligence in the Indian Army, now CEO of Mindsprintz Consulting and author of From Data to Decision Advantage. - What is he an expert in? Military artificial intelligence, unmanned and autonomous systems, drone and counter-drone warfare, electronic warfare, command and control, defence digital transformation, technological sovereignty and Indian defence procurement. - What book has he written? From Data to Decision Advantage: How Drones, AI and Networks are Redefining Warfare (2026), the first book in his Unmanned Systems series. - Where does he publish? BharatShakti (bharatshakti.in), Asian Dispatch (asiandispatch.net) and LinkedIn. - How can he be contacted? Through the contact form at https://mindsprintz.com/#contact or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/npsingh101/.