Panel Discussion Date: Saturday, 26 Feb. 2022
Panel Topic: Defence R & D in India : Designing for 2050 The Road Ahead
Moderator:
Rear Admiral Rahul Kumar Shrawat, AVSM (retd.)
Chairman & Managing Director, Naval Group India
Other Panelists:
1) Lieutenant General B S Jaswal, PVSM, Bar to AVSM, VSM (retd.)
Former Commander, Northern Command and, Indian Army
Former General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C), Army Training Command (ARTRAC), Shimla
2) Major General Ashwani Kumar Channan, PVSM, SM (retd.)
Former Additional Director General, Army Design Bureau
3) Dr. Greg Autry
Clinical Professor of Space Leadership, Policy & Business, Arizona State University
4) Dr. Sudhir Mishra
Distinguished Scientist and Former CEO, BrahMos Aerospace
5) Col. Hariharan Shankar (retd.)
Managing Director, Cobham India
6) Mr. Leo Peter Charles
Drone Platform Evangelist and Dronepreneur ,
Director, Bird360 TechLabs Pvt. Ltd.
7) Group Captain Ajay D. Purandare, VSM, Mention-in-Despatches (Retd)
Head, Centre for Futuristic Defence Studies
Gujarat Campus
National Forensic Sciences University
Rear Admiral Rahul Kumar Shrawat, AVSM (retd.)
R. Adm. Rahul Shrawat graduated in Electronics & Communication Engineering from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Roorkee. He did his post-graduation in Radar & Communication Engineering from IIT Delhi. As an Electrical officer he served the Indian Navy for 36 years. He has been Joint Director at Directorate of Electrical Engineering and Director at DND Surface Ship Group at the Indian Naval HQ at New Delhi. As Captain / Commodore, he looked after maintenance of ships and submarines as General Manager (Technical) at Naval Dockyard, Vizag. As a Flag Officer, he served as the Project Director of a strategic project of the Indian Navy. He also served as Chief Staff Officer (Technical) at Western Naval Command, Mumbai. Later he rose to become Admiral Superintendent Dockyard (ASD) of Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. As ASD he was responsible for the entire Naval Dockyard and its activities and operations. He thereafter moved back to New Delhi as Director General WESEE, a prime organisation of the Indian Navy, dealing with real-time software, weapon system integration & cyber security. On 29th Feb 2012, he joined Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) as Chairman and Managing Director. He joined Naval Group India as Chairman and Managing Director on 01 January 2018.
Mr. Leo Peter Charles
Mr Leo Peter Charles is a drone platform evangelist and a Droneprenuer. He has a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from M V J College of Engineering, Bengaluru and has had the privilege of studying under Air Commodore S C Gupta who was the former Director of CEMILAC who has had immense contributions to the Tejas, Jaguar and Sukhoi 30 MKI aircraft program. His stint with drones started when he was in college and for over a decade now, he has been training pilots, building prototypes, forging partnerships, and creating integrated large scale drone solutions for both private and government entities.
Mr Leo currently holds multiple roles in the drone industry. Jane Aerospace Pvt Ltd was a company he founded in 2019 to provide solutions to the emerging Drone Industry. Jane Aerospace has been training drone pilots, setting up test sites, aiding in import and export of drone spares as well as providing consultancy services to help mitigate challenges faced by the Drone Industry in India. The company is currently part of the Agri Business Incubator – TBI at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University where it also advices them on all things related to Agri drones.
Mr Leo is also the Director at Bird360 TechLabs Pvt Ltd which is poised to become India’s Largest Drone Market Place for both products and services in the coming years. With partnerships with leading OEMs, SaaS platforms and service providers Bird360 is set to revolutionize drone usage in India and globally in the coming years. Bird360 has built partnerships in 3 continents and is involved in creating solutions for various application which include agriculture, climate change, security, logistics, healthcare etc
Mr Leo actively worked with many law enforcement agencies in Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar & Cuttack during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020. Drones for public announcement, surveillance of containment zones as well as drone-based disinfection was carried out at these locations along with other technology partners. He also has had the opportunity to work with the NDRF, ITBP during the Chamoli Disaster Rescue Operations in Uttarakhand in early 2021 when drones were deployed to assist the rescue teams at the site.
Mr Leo is an Executive Committee Member of the Center of Excellence for Agriculture Drones and Robotics at University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore. He is also an active member of the Drone Federation of India and contributes to drone policy framework.
As a firm believer of contributing back to society he takes part in many social welfare projects through Rotary International. He is an active member of the Rotary Bangalore Gokul Vidya.
“Drone Applications are limited by human imagination” is the philosophy the drives his passion to participate and build solutions for the Drone Industry.
Lieutenant General B S Jaswal, PVSM, Bar to AVSM, VSM (retd.)
Lt General Jaswal was commissioned into the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in December 1970 and has had an illustrious career spanning 39 years. He was General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C),Army Training Command (ARTRAC), Shimla, Commanded from October 2009 to December 2010.
He rose to the school highest rank tenable in the army(Army commander ) and was the army Cdr of the most prestigious, powerful and largest command in the Indian Army ie; The northern Command.His strategic vision is laced with immense depth of perspective and focused approach.
Major General Ashwani Kumar Channan, PVSM, SM (retd.)
Maj. Gen. A.K. Channan has 40 Years of experience in various Command and Staff Assignments in the Indian Army. He has been intimately associated with the Make in India-Defence initiative since its inception in 2014 as the Army lead.
He is personally responsible for the conception and execution of the Army Design Bureau. He has led the Indian Army in the Defence Exports Council, under the Secretary of Defence Production. He has led the Indian Army in its efforts of the Army innovation Programme and the MoD Initiative of the Innovation for iDEX.
He was also working as Chief Executive for the Army Technology Board and Technology Development Fund Projects.
Dr. Greg Autry
Dr. Greg Autry is a Clinical Professor of Space Leadership, Policy and Business in the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an Affiliate Professor with the Interplanetary Initiative at Arizona State University. He previously taught technology entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California, strategy, macroeconomics at the University of California at Irvine, and space entrepreneurship in an International Space University program at the Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Autry served on the 2016 NASA Agency Review Team and as the White House Liaison at NASA. He was nominated to serve as Chief Financial Officer pf NASA in 2020. Dr. Autry currently serves as Chair of the Safety Working Group on the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) at the FAA and as Vice President for Space Development at the National Space Society. Dr. Autry served for many years as Advisor and Senior Economist for the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a non-profit dedicated to reassessing U.S. Trade Policy. He is the coauthor, with Peter Navarro, of the groundbreaking bestseller, Death by China: Confronting the Dragon, a Global Call to Action and producer of the film version, narrated by Martin Sheen. Dr. Autry started his career as a software and network engineer and has founded and managed several businesses in the technology sector. His writings have been published in major news outlets including Foreign Policy, the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal and Space News. Dr. Autry has appeared frequently in major media outlets including the BBC, CNN and NPR. He has published several business case studies set in the commercial space sector through Harvard Business School Publishing. He serves on the editorial review boards of: The New Space Journal and The Journal Space Safety Engineering. Dr. Autry holds a BA from California Polytechnic University at Pomona and an MBA and PhD from the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Sudhir Mishra
Dr. Sudhir Mishra is former Distinguished Scientist & Director General (BrahMos), DRDO, Ministry of Defence and CEO&MD, BrahMos Aerospace. He has led highly motivated and technically competent team of Engineers, Scientists and Technicians located at various work centres, successfully developing and delivering the World’s Best Supersonic Cruise Missile to meet the requirement of Indian Armed Forces. Dr. Mishra is a Graduate of Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, M.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Ph.D. from National Institute of Technology, Warangal. He has more than 37 years of R&D experience in the area of missiles technology, production technology, technology management and defence diplomacy. His technical expertise and contribution has resulted in the realisation of several DRDO Missile Programmes. His “Mind to Market” approach has led to design, development, production and product support encompassing complete Product Life Cycle of BrahMos Weapon System. Under his leadership, “Team BrahMos” achieved newer capabilities and versions for Land to Land, Sea to Land and Air to Sea & Land applications. He spearheaded the BrahMos-Air Version programme leading to successful flight test of BrahMos from Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft against Sea and land target. Realisation of BrahMos-A is an historic achievement for India becoming first country in the world to have such unique capability. He has achieved unique distinction of achieving India’s first major weapon export order to Phillippines. He interacted and coordinated with several ministries and PMO to setup procedures, mechanisms and processes for defence exports. He is academician of Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. He is a fellow of Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), Aeronautical Society of India, Institution of Engineers(India), the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), Indian Institution of Production Engineers and Centre for Excellence in Project Management, New Delhi. He is a member of many national and international professional societies. He is awarded with Degree of ‘Doctor of Science’ by Shobhit University, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, People’s University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and Honorary Degree of ‘Doctor of Literature’ from SAGE University, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He has been awarded with the “DRDO Scientist of the Year Award” by the Prime Minister of India, “Distinguished Alumnus Award-2018” by IIT Madras, Eminent Engineer Award by Institution of Engineers (India), IIM-TATA Gold Medal Award by Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata, “Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Samman” by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, “Distinguished Alumni Award” by Government Engineering College, Jabalpur, “Super CEO Award” by The Machinist, Times of India Group, “Vigyan Pratibha Samman” by Council of Science & Technology, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh“, “Life Time Achievement Award” by Sriram College of Engineering & Technology, Jabalpur. He is member of Board of Management of Govind Guru Tribal University, Banswara Rajasthan nominated by Hon’ble Governor of Rajasthan & Chancellor and Member in the Advisory Board of many Academic Institutions, Universities and Societies. He has published several scientific papers and has delivered numerous lectures in National and International Seminars & Conferences.
