Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, the Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development, has been appointed Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. Dr Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. He specialised in Aero-Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology. He initially joined DRDO in 1958 and then joined Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1963. At ISRO, he initiated fibre reinforced plastics activities. He later joined the Satellite Launch Vehicle team at Thumba and became the Project Director for SLV-3.

He has made significant contributions to the Indian Satellite Launch Vehicle. He rejoined DRDO in 1982 and was instrumental in the resurgence of the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. Out of his initiative was born the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), which is the most successful Indian military research task to-date. He was also heading other prestigious projects, such as the MBT Arjun and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) projects. Dr Abdul Kalam was conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Science (DSc HonorIs Causa) by several universities. He is the recipient of several awards including National Design Award; Dr Biren Roy Space Award; Om Prakash Bhasin Award; National Nehru Award; Prof Y Nayudamma Memorial Gold Medal (1996); GM Modi Award for Science (1996); HK Firodia Award for Excellence in S&T (1996); Veer Savarkar Award (1998); and Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration (1997). He has been awarded Padma Bhushan in 1981, Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of India, in 1997. He is the Vice President of Astronautical Society of India, Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. Dr Abdul Kalam has been a strong advocate of self-reliance in defence technology. A connoisseur of classical Karnatak music, he plays veena in his leisure. He is well-versed and has written poetry in Tamil. Seventeen of his poems were translated into English and published in 1994 as a book titled My Journey. He is also the author of the two books, titled India 2020: A Vision for the new Millennium, 1998; and Wings of Fire: An Autobiography, 1998

Dr Vasudev K Aatre, succeeded Dr. Kalam as the new Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. He will simultaneously hold the charge of Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development and Director General, Defence Research & Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence. Born in 1939 at Bangalore, Dr Aatre received BE (Electrical) from University of Mysore in 1961 and ME (Electrical) from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in 1963. He was awarded PhD (Electrical) by the University of Waterloo, Canada, in 1967. Thereafter, he joined the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Canada, and worked till 1980 as Faculty Member and Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was a Visiting Professor at IISc in 1977.

He joined DRDO at the Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory in 1980 and became its Director in 1984. Dr Aatre played a vital role in the development of a wide spectrum of electronic technology and was deeply involved in human resource development in DRDO. He has spearheaded the development of underwater technology for the Navy through the design and productionisation of state-of-the-art transducer and sonar suits. The first indigenous construction of a well-instrumented ocean acoustic research ship Sagardhwani materialised due to his vision and leadership. He has been at the hub of the development of complex and sophisticated integrated electronic warfare systems for the Indian Army and Navy. He has been the major catalyst in DRDO foray into combating gaps on electronic components and devices through innovative and unique programmes like CODE for the development of technologies and vendors for a wide variety of components.

He has been a driving force behind the formation of Core Group on VLICs/ASICs resulting in the fabrication of sophisticated ICs. His sagacious leadership has resulted in the establishment of GaAs foundry GAETEC, a big leap towards self-reliance in the area of MMICs.Dr Aatre is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, IETE, Institution of Engineers, Acoustic Society of India, and Ultrasonic Society of India; and senior member, IEEE. He has published over 50 technical papers in national and international journals and authored text books for graduate and under-graduate levels. His fields of interest include Special Active Filter Structures, Transmultiplier Design, Digital Signal Processing, Sonar and Underwater System Design, and Defence Electronics. He has to his credit national awards, including DRDO Scientist of the Year Award (1986), VASVIK Award for Electronics Science & Technology (1990), IETE Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal for Electronics & Telecommunications (1993), and DRDO Technology Leadership Award (1998). Dr Aatre has been conferred with Padma Bhushan on 26 January 2000.

Ram Narain Agarwal, Scientist, G ,has made invaluable contributions in the field of long range missile technology. As Programme Director, Agni, he has been responsible for the design, development, integration and phase checks of Flight and Ground Systems of AGNI II. All solid propulsion systems are capable of long-time storage and mobile transporter erector-launcher together with improved performance and manoeuvering re-entry have provided the Missile all the operational features. The outstanding technological leadership of Shri Agarwal has resulted in the successful flight test of operational Agni.

G Sateesh Reddy Sci E, Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad has developed the hardware and software for Inertial Navigation System for the operational versions of Agni. He has also developed the test methodology and the test set up for evaluation and performance enhancement of these systems. The accuracy of the system is decided by the quality of sensors, sensor modelling algorithms and calibration areas in which Shri Reddy has made outstanding contributions.

Dr S Lakshminarayanan, a PhD in corrosion in batteries is working as Head, Power Supply Division at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. He is an expert in the field of electro-chemistry, missile batteries, corrosion, and electroplating. He has designed and developed a 12 KW silver oxide zinc reserve battery for Prithvi missile. Besides, he has also designed and developed nine varieties of the reserve batteries with different capacity for control and guidance applications for other missiles. Presently, he is working on lithium-ion batteries -the batteries of the future.

A N Sharma of R& D E (E), Pune, is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from Banaras. He joined DRDO in 1965. His area of interest is design engineering and electro-mechanical systems application in projects. He has made significant contribution in design, development and performance evaluation of a number of ground systems, viz., 400 bar high pressure compressor, 400 Hz electric power supply system, light-weight and compact gas turbine engine-based electric power sources, for Akash, Trishul and Prithvi. Shri Sharma has done pioneering work in the field of servo-controlled, microprocessor-based, self-propelled launchers mounted on tracked vehicles. He was awarded Commendation Certificate by SA to RM for IGMDP in 1989

Krishnamurthy Sekhar of DRDL, Hyderabad obtained MTech in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1973 and joined DRDO in the same year as SSO II. For the last 16 years, he has been working in the area of liquid propulsion technology. He has set up a test facility for large thrust liquid rocket engine and cold flow calibration facility and tested and evaluated liquid rocket engines. Shri Krishnamurthy has also worked as Project Executive for setting up production facilities at Ordnance Factories for producing propellants, warheads and explosives for the missile programme. For the past five years he has been working as Director of Reliability and Quality Assurance ensuring a high quality missile systems during the development phase and has successfully implemented quality systems leading to ISO 9001 Certification.

Dr S Gollakota joined DRDO at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad in 1977 after obtaining MTech and PhD from lIT, Bombay, in Aeronautical Engineering. Initially he was involved in design, development, and installation of the wind tunnel facilities at DRDL and aerodynamic testing of missile models. He also contributed in setting up of Ramjet test facility for carrying out testing of air breathing engine in connected pipe mode. Dr Gollakota was involved in the design of the long range payload delivery system, reusable missile system. He was also a member of the design team which evolved the re-entry test vehicle programme. He was a member of the National Design Team which has developed the concept of Hyperplane which has drawn international acclaim. Later, as Project Director of air-to-air missile Astra, he demonstrated initiative and drive leading to realisation of some of the key technologies and hardware in the project. He has been instrumental in the setting up of facilities for indigenous development of lithium-thermal battery, miniaturised onboard computer and other avionics required for the missile system

Dr M Nagarathinam obtained his PhD from lIT, Chennai, in 1996. Rejoined DRDO at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, in 1972. Since his association with DRDL, he has been instrumental in the development of missile aerodynamics and CFD for missiles. As a leader in the field of computational fluid dynamics, Dr Nagarathinam led the team for the development of highly automated quasi/full 3-D elliptic grid generators and a number of accurate 3-D time marching upwind euler solvers. These codes have been successfully applied to complex flow situations pertaining to IGMDP. The elliptic grid generator AUTOELGRID developed by the team is registered under IPR Act.

KVSS Prasad Rao, Director, RCI, Hyderabad, has more than two-and-half decades of rich experience in the field of aerospace technologies. He has major responsibilities relating to control, guidance, system integration for all the missile systems. In addition, he is working towards establishing core competencies in the development of (i) inertial sensors and sensor-based system for aerospace applications, (ii) modern aerospace actuator components and systems, and (iii) imaging and microwave seeker systems for aerospace applications. At RCI, he also initiated and implemented several important activities related to system integration, such as: establishing the necessary technology base for check out and launch operations for strategic multistage missile system, establishing the related integration facilities, and development of ground weapon complexes for modern air defence systems. Shri Rao contributed to the programme in various capacities as the Chairman of Flight Readiness Review (FRR) Committees and System Design Review Committees (SDRC) for all the Indian Guided Missile Programmes

K Nageswara Rao obtained his BE (Electronics & Communication Engineering) from Govt College of Engineering, Kakinada, in 1967. He joined DRDO at the Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) Bangalore, in 1967 where he worked for the development of sound ranging system. During 1972-89, he worked at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, where he was actively involved with electrical integration and check-out of the first Trishul, Prithvi and Agni flights. Since 1989, he has been working with the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad. He has established the first state-of-the-art EMI/EMC laboratory up to 40G Hz at RCI. Presently, He is Director Management Service; Member Secretary RCI Management Board; and Project Director, PJ10 (ASI). He has been trained on EMI/EMC analysis and prediction and EMI/EMC measurements at the Atlantic Research Corporation, USA, and was also awarded the Certificate of Achievement in 1984 by the Corporation. He was awarded with EMC Engineer of the Year Award in 1996 by the Society of EMI/EMC Engineers (India). He is life member of dB Society and SEMCEI.B S Sastry is involved in the development of yaw, pitch and roll motion simulator for Nag missile . He reviewed the design of the transporter-cum-erector and various other integration fixtures of PJ Q8. He is associated with the development of hydraulic power pack of air defence missile, electro-hydraulic servo valves for LCA and indigenisation of 30/40 KVA generator for LCA and ground systems for Akash and Trishul with BHEL (R&D).

T V Rao is BE and MS in Electrical Engineering from Vikram University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in 1966 and 1982, respectively. He joined the Department of Civil Aviation in 1968 as Assistant Technical Officer and was engaged mainly in the maintenance of aviation communication and navigation equipment. He joined DRDO in 1972 as SSO-II at the Instruments Research & Development Establishment, Dehradun and was responsible for control system development for free gyro-based land navigation system (GLNS) and shared cash award for it development. He also initiated the development of gyro-stabilised sighting systems through a competence building project. Besides, he also participated in the evaluation of a variety of fire control systems for tanks and contributed towards development of control circuits for prototype stabilised sights for MBT. He was transferred to the Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, in 1984 and has been working in the Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad since 1989. He is presently engaged in the design and development of gyro-based stabilisation systems for two categories of seekers for missile applications. He is also associated with Nag weapon system designed at DRDL/RCI.

Velamuri Kanaka Venugopal obtained BE in Mechanical Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati and ME in Space Engineering and Rocketry from Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi. He joined DRDO at the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, in 1973. Under his able guidance, three major projects were successfully undertaken, viz., liquid propulsion technology, project Prithvi and project Dhanush. As a member of Liquid Propulsion Division, he commissioned various test facilities to carry out performance evaluation of liquid propellant rocket engine and subsystems, and conducted static tests. Under his guidance, liquid propellant storage facility was set up as per STEC standards.Under project Prithvi, Shri Venugopal evolved the weapon system configuration and finalised the design for ground system (17 nos) required for the project. He guided the launcher stabilisation system through extensive trials for project Dhanush for launching of Prithvi (P-II) version from ship-to-shore-based targets which was configured for the Navy.