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, Gp Capt TH Anand Rao (Retd) as Secretary.

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; Space

  • Secretary - Gp Capt TH Anand Rao (Retd)

    Present Engagements

    Director, ISpA
    Senior Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies.

    Professional Background

    IAF veteran, Former Fighter Pilot and a Flying Instructor

    Area of Expertise

    Space Security, Strategy and Policy Analysis, Space Domain Awareness, Counterspace Strategies
    Author of “India’s Sace Security Dilemma”,
    Editor of compilation Book“ Beyond the Blue Yonder”,
    Editor of CAPS Aerospace Journal ‘Blue Yonder’.

National Advisory Committee Members

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

    Present Engagements

    President, Air Force Association | Chief Nodal Officer UP Defence Industrial Corridor.

    Professional Background

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

    Area of Expertise

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

  • Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari PVSM AVSM VM (Retd)

    Professional Background

    Former Chief of the Air Staff Indian Air Force

  • 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)

    Professional Background

    Former Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC)

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

    Professional Background

    Former Vice Chief of Naval Staff

  • 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)

    Professional Background

    ⁠Former Principal Advisor MoD, 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.

  • Air Marshal SP Dharkar PVSM AVSM SM VSM (Retd)

    Professional Background

    Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force.
    First Director General of the Defence Space Agency in Bengaluru. Served as Air Defence Commander at HQ Eastern Air Command (EAC), Shillong. Held the position of Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Training) at Air Headquarters, New Delhi. Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Air Command (EAC).

  • Prof V Kamakoti

    Present Engagements

    Director, IIT Madras

    Professional Background

    The Director General of the Defence Space Agency at Bengaluru, Air Defence Commander at HQ EAC and Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Training) at Air Headquarters.

    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

    • NAC Subject Matter Expert

    • Dr Ranjana Kaul

      Present Engagements

      Partner, Dua Associates, a leading law firm in New Delhi, India; Vice President, 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.

    • 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 Special Invitee

    • Mr Amit Kumar Ghosh

      Present Engagements

      Principal Secretary to Govt of UP

      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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