Commander Ankush Banerjee was commissioned on 01 Jan 2008. The officer is an alumnus of the erstwhile Naval Academy and has served at the Centre of Excellence in Ethics, Leadership and Behavioural Studies, Indian Naval Academy, Naval History Division, Naval Institute of Educational and Training Technology, and the National Defence College, New Delhi. Three time recipient of the United Services Institution Gold Medal Essay Prize (2015, 2017, 2021), the erstwhile Commodore Nott Essay Prize (2018), the 2023 National Poetry Competition (organized by NDA), and Commendations from the CNS and FOCINC(South) in 2023 and 2015, his work appears or is forthcoming in the USI Journal, Journal of Defence Studies, ORF Occasional Papers, Defence and Diplomacy, The Indian Express, Scroll, Best Asian Poetry 2021 (Kitaab, 2022), and Converse: Contemporary English Poetry by Indians (Pippa Rann Books, 2022), among others. His latest publications include an Occasional Paper for the ORF exploring Civil Military Fusion in the Armed Forces Training Paradigm (Nov 2025), and a chapter examining how local geography and knowledge systems shaped Maratha Navy’s tactical superiority, for Tides of Triumph: A Saga of the Maratha Navy (Harper Collins, New Delhi, 2025). He was also a core member of the editorial team for the Indian Naval Maritime Security Strategy 2026. He is an avid reader and biriyani connoisseur.