Lt General Karanbir Singh Brar, AVSM is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. Khadakwasala and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, & was commissioned into the Armoured Corps The General Officer with a career spanning 38 years, has rich experience of serving in all terrain and operational areas with tenures in J&K, Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Rajasthan, Rann and Kutch and has served in UN Missions in Congo & South Sudan as Sector Commander, both high risks missions.

Chair

Group Captain Arvind Pandey (Retd) is a geospatial intelligence professional. He has served for 36 years in IAF and has more than 25 years of active Geospatial Intelligence Domain experience. He has served in Image Intelligence School, AF as Chief Instructor and Commanding Officer. He has served in two operational IAF Commands as Command Image Intelligence Officer responsible for South Western, Western, Northern and Eastern fronts of our area of interest. He has also served in one of the most active Advance HQs in western front as image intelligence officer which is responsible for extensive liaison for synergised army operations.He is trained on full spectrum remote sensing analysis which includes EO/IR, SAR & Hyperspectral ranges. He has vast knowledge on creation of Geospatial ecosystem & infrastructure in Indian context wrt military and non-military applications. He has immense experience of synergy between space segment & ground segment for successful utilization of data captured from earth observation.

Col Somen Parida is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery in December 2000. He is a Bachelor of Technology in IT & Telecommunications from Military College of Telecommunication Engineering. He has also done the prestigious Tehnical Officers Staff Course from Military Institute of Technology and Higher Command Course from Army War College. He has commanded his unit along the Line of Control and is presently serving in Project Management Organization Battlefield Surveillance System at Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence.

Col Anurag Mathur is an Indian Army officer who was commissioned into the Corps of Electronics & Mechanical Engineering in Jun 1999. The Officer has stood First in the Order of Merit in BTech and received numerous accolades for his innovativeness during his unit tenures. A Higher Defence Management Course and Staff College Graduate, he has tenanted challenging Staff & Operational tenures in Siachen glacier, Mil Operations and Op Logistics appointments. He was the Force Public Info Offr at UNMISS as part of a UN Mission where he initiated a GIS based info management system for int collation. He is also a PhD research scholar from IIM Indore working in the domain of AI and Information Systems. The officer is currently posted as Col Industry Army Design Bureau at Army HQ.

RAdm Sachin Reuben Sequeira, SC was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 01 Jul 94. He is an alumnus of Naval Academy, INS Mandovi, 64th DSSC and the Defence and Strategic Studies Course at CDSS, Canberra.

A gunnery and missile specialist, he has tenanted specialist tenures onboard frontline IN destroyers and friga tes. He has also been the Defence Advisor in Singapore and Philippines.

The Officer's command tenures include command of INS Kochi, INS Nishank and Coast Guard Ship C-05.

The Officer has also tenanted various staff appointments at Naval Headquarters and HQ IDS. He has recently taken over as ACNS (CSNCO) at Naval Headquarters, an elevation to Flag rank.

Chair

Commodore Atul Deswal is an alumnus of the Indian Naval Academy, Goa and was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 01 Jan 93. In a career spanning over three decades, the officer has notable experience in Naval Operations, Military Diplomacy, Strategic Planning and policy promulgation. He has had privilege of serving as a specialist Staff Officer in the Western Fleet, the sword arm of the Indian Navy. He is a Communication and Electronic Warfare specialist and has served onboard several frontline fleet ships as a Communication Officer. The officer has had the distinction of Commanding a frontline destroyer and played a key role in the commissioning of a stealth frigate abroad, as the Executive Officer. A graduate from the prestigious Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, his staff appointments include Defence Attache to Brazil, a tenure at HQ IDS as Deputy Assistant Chief Integrated Defence Staff, International Defence Cooperation and Joint Communication Electronic Staff. His instructional appointments include instructor at Signal School, Kochi and Directing Staff at DSSC, Wellington. He is presently posted at Naval Headquarters as the Deputy Director General, Navy Cyber Group and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO, Navy).

Born on April 8, 1958, Samaddar is a graduate of IIT Roorkee (B.E, 1978) and had a distinguished career in the Indian Navy, retiring in 2009 as Principal Director Naval Plans. He held various key positions, including staff and command appointments, and has been an International Fellow at JIIA, Tokyo, and Admiral RD Katari Fellow at USI, New Delhi. Post-retirement, Samaddar served as Vice President Operations at NOVA Integrated Systems (TATA) and CEO of ShinMaywa Industries India. He was a Senior Consultant at NITI Aayog until 2019 and currently serves as an Advisor at FICCI and Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Air Power Studies, New Delhi.

Dr. Kapil Malik is a seasoned expert in the remote sensing domain with over 18 years of experience. He currently leads sales and business development for Synspective Inc Japan in South Asia. Dr. Malik earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad, specializing in PS-InSAR applications for urban deformation monitoring. Throughout his professional career, he has worked across government, academic research, defense, and private sectors, applying his expertise to a wide range of projects and initiatives.

Sarunisha R is with SUHORA as a Product Lead of SUHORA's next gen ISR product, with a foundation in Computer Science and Engineering and a Master's in Remote Sensing and GIS with specialization in Geoinformatics. With a deep passion for problem solving in the defence sector is dedicated to advancing defense strategies through spatial analysis and intelligence gathering, ensuring precision and effectiveness in critical operations contributing to shaping a more spatially-informed world.

Maj Gen Gaurav Kaushal, SM, VSM is an alumnus of the National Defence Academyand was commissioned into the Bengal Sappers of the Corps of Engineers in Dec 1991 wherein, he has tenanted all important appts of the Regt as a junior offr and was also awarded with GOC-in-C CC for Counter IED Operations during his early yrs of service. He has varied experience in Comd, staff & instructional appts. The Gen offr has commanded his Unit in a CI area in Assam and in an Engr Bde, part of Strike Corps. He also commanded the prestigious 416 Engr Bde. He has held various coveted staff appts like BM & G1 of an Inf Bde, Col Q of a Strike RAPID, Col GS Concepts at HQ ARTRAC where he was awarded the GOC-in-C, ARTRAC CC and Col CE 5 at E-in-C's Branch where he was conferred with VSM, aptly recognizing his dedication to service. He has also served as a Directing Staff at the Senior Command Wing of Army War College, Mhow where he was also awarded with the GOC-in-C, ARTRAC CC. As a Lt Col, the officer served in the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Chief, Jt Ops Centre, wherein he was awarded the Force Cdr's CC. As a Subject Matter Expert, the offr had also participated in Ex YUDH ABHYAS in USA (JBLM, Seattle). He is a well accomplished officer with par excellence performance by achieving 'I' grading in all the career courses he has attended. He is an alumnus of DSSC, Wellington, AWC, Mhow and CDM, Secunderabad. He has also done his B Tech Degree in Electrical Engineering at CME, Pune, Masters in Management Studies from Osmania University and MPhil from Punjab University with Distinction. The Gen Offr was tenanting a very important and sensitive appt in DV & Legal Dte of DGBR from where he assumed the present appt of Dy Comdt & Dean wef 15 Feb 2024. The officer is recently conferred with 'Sena Medal' on the occasion of Republic Day 2025.

Chair

Lt Col Vivek Gopal, an alumnus of NDA, Khadakwasla was commissioned in the Corps of Electronics & Mechanical Engineers in Dec 2000. The officer has a wide experience in the field of Electronic Warfare (EW) & has handled a plethora of systems in his six-year stint with various EW units. A M Tech in Communication Engineering, the officer has handled various appointments in peace, field, high altitude as well as intense CI/CT environment in his career spanning 19 years so far. A paratrooper, the officer evinces keen interest in latest developments in the field of communication & EW. He is also a Member of the Institution of Engineers.

Moderator

Col Pawan Kumar Panday is qualified in Long Survey Officers Course from National Institute of Geospatial Science and Technology, Advance Image Analysis Course from ITC, Netherlands and specialized in Land Info System and Drone Based Survey. The officer has been Deputy Surveyor General (GIS Tech Centre)atSurveyor General Office, Director at Uttarakhand & WestUP Geodetic Data Centre, Project Director and A & C for Large Scale Mapping Project, Project Director SVAMITRA and Chairman SoC of Indo-Nepal Boundary Mechanism. He is currently Director Technical at ADG Military Survey.

Dr. Sujanth Narayan K G serves as a Technical Lead at the Technology Innovation Hub in Positioning and Precision Technologies (IITTNiF), IIT Tirupati. In this role, he oversees the development of RF front-end and subsystem technologies for GNSS/NavIC systems. His translational research includes the advancement of flexible antenna systems for GNSS. Additionally, he coordinates Technology Development Projects (TDP) in collaboration with academic spoke institutions and contributes to human resource and skill development initiatives. Dr. Narayan holds a Ph.D. in Antennas and RF System Design with a focus on V2X communication from SASTRA Deemed University, an M.Tech. in Communication Systems from SASTRA Deemed University, and a B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from R.M.K. Engineering College. An active member of IEEE, Dr. Narayan has published six SCI-indexed journal articles and 15 conference papers. His research contributions have garnered over 85 citations, with an h-index of 5 and an i10-index of 3. He has also imparted his expertise through teaching courses such as Antenna & Wave Propagation and RF System Design. His research interests encompass antenna design, RF systems, and wireless communication, with a focus on addressing critical challenges in advanced communication technologies.

Cdr. Mukesh Saini (Ret) has held many information security positions in both public and private sector, over his 30 year career. Having served as a commander in the Indian Navy for 20 years, his latter years were dedicated to his role as India's first national coordinator for information security. Saini has held executive positions at Microsoft, XCySS and Essel Group.

Col Nadeem Arshad is an alumnus of OTA, Chennai. After graduating from Aligarh Muslim University with a BSc (Physics Hons), he was commissioned into the Indian Army Corps of Signals in 1988 and later completed his BSc Engineering from JNU. He has also earned a PG Diploma in Disaster Management. He superannuated in 2021 after a distinguished 34-year career. He commanded his unit in Kausani, providing communication to the Army along the 462 km stretch of the China-Nepal border, from the Harsil Sector to the Dharchula Sector. During his tenure in Kausani, he faced two major disasters: the floods and landslides of 2009-2010, and the forest fires of 2010. Since 2021, Col Nadeem has been working as a Senior Consultant (Operations) at the National Disaster Management Authority, where he supports disaster response operations. He has represented the Government of India in several HADR operations and online exercises with SAARC, BIMSTEC, ASEAN, and QUAD. He has also contributed to the formulation of various SOPs for QUAD nations, ITEWC, and other frameworks.

Chair

Dr. S. P. Aggarwal assumed the charge of Director, NESAC with effect from 17th September, 2021. He has taken important initiatives towards effective utilization of Space Science and Technology for various developmental activities of NER such as Natural Resource Management, Infrastructure Planning, Disaster Risk Management, Weather forecasting, Satellite communication applications, ICT based and Geo-governance related applications, etc. Prior to this assignment, he was the Group Head of Water Resources Department at Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), ISRO, Dehradun. Dr. Aggarwal is a highly accomplished scientist in the field of Remote Sensing and GIS applications in water resources management, disaster management and climate change impact assessment and at the same time he has immensely contributed in the capacity building and outreach program of ISRO.

Dr. Balakrishnan Nair is the Director-in-charge of the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. With over 30 years of research experience, he played a key role in establishing INCOIS and developing India's operational ocean observation, forecasting, and early warning systems. These systems now serve India and several Indian Ocean Rim countries, supporting sectors like shipping, oil, tourism, and fisheries. He is the Chair of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and holds leadership roles in various WMO expert teams and international programs. Dr. Nair has received numerous prestigious awards, including the National Maritime Search & Rescue Award (2024) and National Geosciences Award (2014). He is also the recipient of the PM's "Subhash Chand Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar-2025" for disaster management. Dr. Nair holds a Ph.D. in Marine Science, specializing in operational oceanography, wave modeling, and marine biogeochemistry. He has published over 110 papers in SCI journals and is a recognized research guide for Ph.D. students.

Anil Prakash, Director General at SIA-India, is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in Government Relations, Regulatory Affairs, and Policy Frameworks. With a robust techno-commercial background in Telecom, ICT, Satellite, and Broadcasting on digital platforms, he brings 37 years of valuable work experience to the table. Anil has been actively associated with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for over two decades, where he has made significant contributions to ITU's initiatives and activities in India. He is a proactive member of various task groups established by government bodies, telecom associations, and chambers of commerce. Over the course of more than three decades, Anil has represented his expertise at major international conferences. Currently, he holds the position of Director General at the Satcom Industry Association (SIA-India), a recognized thought leader in the satcom industry in India.