An alumnus of the Naval Engineering Course (NEC), Naval Engineering College, INS Shivaji, Lonavala and College of Defence Management (CDM), Secunderabad, Commodore Debesh Lahiri was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 25 Nov 1988. He is a Marine Engineer by profession and has completed his Master’s (MTech) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. He has completed a World Bank programme on Alternate Dispute Resolution-Arbitration, Conciliation and Mediation. He was the Deputy Naval Attaché at the Embassy of India, Moscow, and has been at the helm of two Naval ship Repair Yards, at Port Blair and Karwar respectively.

He has a wide experience at sea, having been Engineer Officer on three different types of propulsion, viz. Internal Combustion Engines (Ghorpad), Gas Turbines (Veer) and Steam (Udaygiri, Ganga, Gomati and Beas) and has also been the Fleet Engineer Officer, Western Fleet. He has been Additional General Manager (Quality Assurance and Production) at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, and is well-versed in Human Resource Management, having been Director of Personnel at Naval Headquarters. As Commodore Dockyards, he was responsible for the creation of marine infrastructure in the Navy. He is a fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineers (FIMarE) and his papers have been published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), International Naval Engineers Conference (INEC), Indian National IC Engines Conference and the Journal of Marine Engineering. He has also authored service papers on matters of importance to the Indian Navy and has written a dissertation on Comprehensive National Power. His articles and poems on Shipbuilding in Ancient India, Energy, Emissions, Environment, Quality Techniques, Leadership and Personnel Management have been published in Naval Despatch, Personnel Update, among several other magazines and periodicals. He is a keen sportsman, weekend-golfer, avid reader and sometimes poet.