ISpA National Advisory Committee (NAC)

ISpA National Advisory Committee (NAC)

The Indian Space Association announced the formation of the National Advisory Committee (hereinafter referred to as NAC) on 12 July 2022. The NAC has been set up to provide strategic vision, guidance and mentoring to ISpA in the execution of its role as the premier Space Industry Body of India, to strengthen India’s Space Ecosystem to make India, a “Global Space Power” in alignment with the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The NAC works as an advisory body to ISpA for suggesting goals and milestones for achieving ISpA’s Vision as well as highlighting issues that merit attention.

Dr Arvind Gupta, Director of Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) is the Chairperson of NAC. The Secretarial Support to NAC would be provided by the Director General of ISpA, Lt Gen AK Bhatt (Retd) as Convener and Director of ISpA, Wg Cdr Satyam Kushwaha (Retd).

The Committee members comprise eminent professionals with a track record of distinguished service. They hail from multi-sectoral backgrounds which includes, Academia, Bureaucracy, Defence, Industry, Technology, and Space. ISpA also invites Serving Government Officers to attend NAC proceedings as Special Invitees, to seek their expert opinion on a case-to-case basis.

  • Chairperson - Dr Arvind Gupta, IFS (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Director, Vivekananda International Foundation

    Professional Background

    Deputy National Security Adviser & Secretary at the National Director-General at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; served in various capacities at the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian missions abroad

    Area of Expertise

    National Security; International Relations & Foreign Policy; Governance; History, Culture & Civilization. He also writes articles on popular science.

  • Convener - Lt Gen AK Bhatt, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, SM, VSM (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Director General, ISpA

    Professional Background

    Military Secretary; Director General Military Operation; and, Corps Commander.

    Area of Expertise

    Defence; Human Resources; Space

  • Secretary - Wing Commander Satyam Kushwaha (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Director, ISpA; Founder, Scytale Alpha Pvt Ltd.

    Professional Background

    Entrepreneur; Fighter Pilot; Defence Specialist at NSCS; Satellite Image Analyst; and, represented India at UN GGIM forums.

    Area of Expertise

    National Security; Defence, Space, & Aerospace Matters; Space Industry; Government Policy; Geo-intelligence; Geospatial-AI Transformations; Design, Develop, Implement & Steer programs of National Importance; Multi-agency Coordination; and Nation Building & Social Work.

National Advisory Committee Members

  • Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    President, Air Force Association.

    Professional Background

    Chief of the Air Staff; Fighter Pilot; & Experimental Test Pilot.

    Area of Expertise

    National Security; Defence; Military Aviation; Defence & Aerospace Industry;

  • Amb. Arun K Singh, IFS (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Distinguished Fellow, VIF.

    Professional Background

    Member, NSAB; Ambassador to US, France & Israel. Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.

    Area of Expertise

    Econometrics; Development Policy; Macroeconomics; and Indian economic history.

  • Air Marshal BR Krishna PVSM AVSM SC ADC (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Professional Background

    Former CISC

    Area of Expertise

  • Vice Admiral SN Ghormade PVSM AVSM NM ADC (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Professional Background

    Former Vice Chief of Naval Staff

    Area of Expertise

  • Dr Shailesh Nayak

    Present Engagements

    Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies; Member, IN-SPACe; Chancellor, TERI School of Advanced Studies; Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, Dehradun.

    Professional Background

    Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences; Director, ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Systems, Hyderabad; Group Director, Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad; President, Technical Commission (TC) IV on ‘Geodatabases and Digital Mapping’; International Society of Photogrammetric and Remote Sensing (ISPRS),

    Area of Expertise

    Oceanography; Hazards; Remote Sensing; Climate change; Polar science.

  • Lt Gen VG Khandare, PVSM, AVSM, SM (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Principal Adviser, Ministry of Defence

    Professional Background

    Former Military Advisor, NSCS; Former DG DIA & DC IDS(Int), HQ IDS.

    Area of Expertise

    Comprehensive National Security; Policy; Defence; Human Resources; Space; Cyber; Data Sovereignty; International military training, Comprehensive National Security, Defence Diplomacy and Peace Keeping

  • Prof V Kamakoti

    Present Engagements

    Director, IIT Madras.

    Professional Background

    Member of the National Security Advisory Board, Government of India.

    Area of Expertise

    Software aspects of VLSI design; Cluster computing; High-performance computing; Algorithms; Data structures, and Computational geometry.

  • Dr Siddharth Shekhar Singh

    Present Engagements

    Associate Professor of Marketing, Indian School of Business.

    Professional Background

    Former Senior Associate Dean, ISB; Director of the Doctoral program, ISB; Former, Board of Directors of Dlabs; Independent Director on the Board of Directors, Petronet LNG Limited and International Schools of Business Management.

    Area of Expertise

    Marketing and Finance, Electronics & Communications, Digital Transformation.

  • Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Director IIT Tirupati NiF, Director Emeritus OGC, Formerly President Geospatial Solutions, IIC Technologies.

    Professional Background

    Military Survey; Former Head NRDMS & CEO NSDI, DST.

    Area of Expertise

    Defence; Surveying & Mapping, Photogrammetry Cartography; Geointelligence; OGC,UNGGIM

  • Gp Capt (Dr) Ajey Lele (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Head, Centre on Strategic Technologies in the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

    Professional Background

    Veteran Officer from Indian Air Force; Researcher.

    Area of Expertise

    Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD); Space Security & Strategic Technologies.

  • Mr JS Deepak, IAS (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Group Director- International Strategy & Public Policy, Bharti Enterprises

    Professional Background

    Former Secretary, Department of Telecommunications; Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1982 batch of UP cadre; Former Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce; Former Chief Negotiator at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)

    Area of Expertise

    Policy; Telecommunication; Business; Management; Trading; International Strategy

  • Dr Ravinder Pal Singh

    Present Engagements

    Engineer: Computer Science & Aerospace - 37 Patents | Investor & Board Adviser : Deep Tech & Science - 22X ROI over 2 decades | Professor: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

    Professional Background

    C-Level / Senior Leadership : Tata Singapore Airlines ; Air Works Group; Accenture; Microsoft; Wipro ; Tech Mahindra ; Rishihood University ; Kalaari Capital Board Member / Advisor : SiriNoR, Norway; Cron AI, UK; Baaz Bikes, India; Peer Robotics, USA; Clean Electric, India; Chara Motors, India; Digantara, India; SimpliContract , USA

    Area of Expertise

    Venture Capitalism ; DeepTech ; Entrepreneurship ; Aviation ; Artificial Intelligence ; Robotics ; Energy ; Teaching

    • NAC Subject Matter Expert

    • Air Vice Marshal DV Khot AVSM VSM (Retd)

      Present Engagements
      Professional Background

      Former Director General, Defence Space Agency

      Area of Expertise

    • Mr K Krishna

      Present Engagements
      Professional Background

      Former Vice President, Chief Technical Officer & Chief Regulatory Officer, Hughes Communication India

      Area of Expertise

      Satellite Industry, International Regulatory Affairs, Flight and Maritime Connectivity

    • Dr Ranjana Kaul

      Present Engagements

      Partner, Dua Associates, a leading law firm in New Delhi, India; Member, Board of Directors, International Institute of Space Law (IISL),Paris.; and founding member of Spaceport SARABHAI (S2), India’s first independent think tank dedicated to ‘outer space’.

      Professional Background

      Specialization in international space law treaty regimes, and advises on aspects within Indian policy, regulatory,procedural, and institutional ecosystems. Dr Kaul was awarded the 2017 IISL Distinguished Services Award for her championing role for the building of awareness on development of national space legislation.

      Qualifications

      LLM, Institute of Air & Space Law, McGill University, Canada; PhD, University of Poona; LLB, University of Delhi.

    NAC Special Invitee

    • Mr Amit Kumar Ghosh

      Present Engagements

      Additional Secretary, MoRTH

      Professional Background

      Health Services; National Highways; Infrastructure linked Policy; Departmental Reinvigorations and Transformations; Land & Revenue Administration; and, Implementation of flagship developmental schemes.

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