DEFENSE AND AEROSPACE WORKSHOP 2021
AGENDA
Day 1 - 9th December
3:45 PM – 4:15 PM - Registration
4:15 PM – 4:30 PM - Welcome Note, Erik Azulay, MD, ACIR
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM - Meet and Greet and Startup Introductions - Amit Pathak, GM, Pratt & Whitney
6:00 PM – 6:30 PM - Networking for Startups
Day 2 - 10th December
9:00 – 10:00 AM - Registration/Check-in open. Morning Tea
10:00 – 10:30 AM
Welcome remarks by Principal Secretary, Jayesh Ranjan
Welcome remarks by SGK Kishore, Executive Director - South Airports & Chief Innovation Officer – GMR Airports
Welcome remarks by William Blair, CEO, Lockheed Martin India
Special address by Consul General Joel Reifman
Welcome address by Erik Azulay, ACIR
10:30 - 11:30 AM - First session. Technology description/value propositions; Erik Azulay
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Round Table with the Indian Defense Companies – How to work with them/How to approach innovation in Aerospace and Defense - Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Bharat Forge and Ananth Technologies Limited (ATL)
12:30 - 1:30 PM - Lunch
2:30 - 3:00 PM - IACC Meet over Afternoon Tea
3:00 – 4:00 PM – Third session. Intellectual property contd.: Aumirah
4:00 - 5:00 PM - Session by Defense Innovation Unit - DIU - By Matt Goldman
1:30 – 2:30 PM – Second session. Intellectual property: Aumirah
M. CHANDRASEKHAR RAO, BDL
Mr. M. Chandrasekhar Rao, is presently working as Deputy General Manager in Design and Engineering Division. He is responsible for design of Opto-electronics systems and planning of R&D activities at Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad. He is a certified Project Management Professional.
He is involved in various Design and Development projects including 3rd Generation Anti-tank guided missile, Counter Measures Dispensing System for various aircrafts and other R&D projects of BDL.
Prior to joining BDL, he worked in Bharat Electronics Ltd, Machilipatnam and BEL Optronics Devices Ltd, Pune.
He is a receipient of Raksha Mantri's award for excellence in design effort category.
M. VINOD KUMAR
Mr. M. Vinod Kumar, is presently working as Additional General Manager and Head of Very Short Range Air Defence Missile project. He has done his graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT, Allahabad, post graduation in Computer Science from JNTU, Hyderabad and MBA in Finance from Osmania University. He is a certified Project Management Professional. He has vast experience in design and development of various products for Indian Armed Forces including Missile test equipment, Launcher Test equipment and Counter Measures Dispensing System for various aircrafts.
Previously, he has worked in Milan missile production division and headed Electronics production Division.
He is a receipient of many awards including Society of Defence Technologists (SODET) award for innovation and two Raksha Mantri's awards for excellence for "Design Effort and "Import Substitution". He has a patent for "Field Level Test Equipment for Missile Launcher"
Rahul Bagga, Founder & Managing Director of Aumirah
Rahul Bagga is Founder & Managing Director of Aumirah [Aumirah IP and Aumirah Analytics]. He has also founded a legal tech company - IP Sarthi Legal Tech Pvt Ltd to develop online tools for managing several aspects of IP.
He is MSc DIC in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and is a registered Indian Patent Agent with more than decade's experience of working in IP sector in three different countries. At Aumirah, he leads a spirited, high performing and young team of engineers, lawyers and analysts. Through Aumirah, he has served more than 600+ domestic and foreign clients over last 5+ years in range of matters pertaining to intellectual property rights in India and across the world. His specialisation is patent law and has over the years gained significant expertise, and with his spirited & high performing colleagues at Aumirah, he has advised companies/startups/MSMEs from across multiple industries such as EVs, AI, Robotics, Biotechnology, Pharma, Drones, Defence, Automotive, General Engineering, Agriculture and nanotechnology. He also serves as mentor to various other Delhi/NCR based incubators such as Nexus & Aspire Labs, and has also been empanelled by i-hub Gujarat.
Dr. Matt Goldman, Director, Future Capabilities
Dr. Goldman is the director of the future capabilities directorate at the Defense Innovation Unit. The directorates's mission is to focus on strategies to accelerate the transition of commercial innovation and technology to our men and women in government within a five year horizon.
Priorto this position Dr. Goldman served several roles within the military community. Dr. Goldman is an active researcher, most recently collaborating on projects using state of the art biotechnology wearable technology to help with presymptomatic identification of COVID-19.
Nidhiya V Raj, Startup & VC Ecosystem for NVIDIA in South Asia
She evangelizes the adoption of AI across various industry segments. An additional responsibility she holds at NVIDIA is to lead some of the emerging market strategies at large to enable AI Adoption in underrepresented countries across the world. As a technologist, she handles an interdisciplinary role working very closely with AI & Data Science startups, corporates, government, and academia. Apart from her corporate role, she serves as a board member at non-profit initiatives like TinkerHub & Random Hacks of Kindness to strategize ‘tech-for-good’ activities. She dedicates her weekend for advising few startups on product and growth strategies as well. She started off her professional career with NASSCOM and prior to that, she ran her startup for about three years while she was pursuing Engineering & Young India Fellowship. Her wearable Innovation– Nirbhaya 2.0 has got recognized by US Consulate, TCS, Makerfaire, Maker Fest, Coca-Cola etc.
Amit Pathak General Manager, Pratt & Whitney, India
Amit is the GM and site leader for Pratt & Whitney’s Customer Training operations in the region covering South Asia and Middle-East. He is also the Industry co-chair for the US-India Aviation Cooperation Program (ACP), Skills development sub-committee. In his present role Amit is responsible for ensuring smooth entry in service for new P&W customers and ensuring adequate training support for existing P&W customers in the region. He is also actively involved in mentoring startups working on cutting edge digital technologies for developing innovative solutions for the aerospace industry.
Prior to his current assignment, Amit was heading OEM business development for Collins Aerospace for South-Asia and Middle-East regions driving growth on major commercial and military platforms under development in the region. Prior to that, he was a director of business development for India for Cobham, a UK headquartered MNC, where he was driving business growth across aerospace and homeland security businesses.
Amit began his career at Honeywell as an avionics engineer and rose up the ranks driving avionics product development programs across their facilities in India, Europe and US. He was subsequently deputed to Honeywell corporate headquarters in US for a stint with the corporate technology and strategy group where he was responsible for supporting strategic initiatives and new product development initiatives. In 2008, Amit returned to India to drive Honeywell product management and marketing for their global helicopter mission systems business from India.
Amit holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication engineering and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Naveen Munnangi, General Manager & Whole time Director– Belcan India Private Limited
Naveen Munnangi joined Belcan in July 2016 to setup Business & Engineering operations at Hyderabad. Led & implemented multiple Digital initiatives across geographies to drive innovation & productivity. Built and managed key market research initiatives across Industry verticals, geographies & in new market growth areas. Responsible for Belcan India P&L and to develop APAC strategy. Active member of Belcan International management team based in UK. Prior to joining Belcan, Naveen spent 15 years at Tecumseh, an American multinational based in Ann Arbor, MI,USA. Handled global roles executing Product strategy, from Ann Arbor, MI.
As a Director of Engineering at Tecumseh India, he was responsible for Global Technical Center operations and New Product introductions at Tecumseh India. He was active member of Global Engineering leadership and executed full life cycle product launches managing multiple Technology programs across North America, Europe, Brazil, China & Middle East. As of part of Global technical center at Tecumseh India, he led several customer projects initiatives which includes supporting Aerospace & Industrial vertical customers based in North America & Europe.
Naveen is a Mechanical Engineer with Master’s degree, MS from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS,pilani). Completed Advanced course in Finance (M&A) from XLRI, India. Naveen lives in Hyderabad, India with his wife Lakshmi & daughter Disha(14). Naveen enjoy watching movies & reading books.
Manya Jha,Founder & Chairperson of Morphedo.
Manya is a technology enthusiast and aspires to bring about a difference to millions of lives by developing breakthrough technology based products.
Morphedo is a product engineering company and builds hardware technologies. They engineer electronics devices (Embedded Hardware, IoT & Electromechanical); from ideation to scale, working on integration of every aspect of the product (Firmware, Electronics, Industrial Design, Backend and Frontend Development) in parallel, helping businesses to co-create with their team of engineers from different domains, all under one roof.
Morphedo is currently executing 4 long term product development projects for Indian Defence. They have partnered with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency) to develop a sensor for aircraft application. This contract has been awarded under TDF (Technology Development Fund) Scheme for indigenisation of TATP, a component of Flight control unit to be installed in Light Combat Aircrafts, Tejas. 3 of the other projects are for product engineering and manufacturing of electronics devices to be used by soldiers in Siachen and other high-altitude zones.
Vrinda Kapoor, 114AI
Ms Kapoor is a deep technology entrepreneur with a focus on lab to market innovation. She is a recipient of numerous national and international awards and in recognition of her work. As co-founder, her company is a winner of an iDEX challenge, won contracts with the US and UK Governments, developed partnerships with universities, large corporates and defence prime contractors and is signing the first international cooperative research agreement with the United States Air Force Research Labs Space Vehicles Directorate. She has been invited to speak at conferences and as an industry panellist at various Government forums across the world. At DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow, she was selected to present her work to the Indian Prime Minister, Shree Narendra Modi as a pioneer entrepreneur in disruptive technologies. In 2019, she was invited to present to the then Undersecretary of Defense of the United States, Hon Ellen Lord and her team. In 2019, Vrinda was awarded for her outstanding contribution to enhance the operational capabilities of the Indian Army by the then Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat.
Anirudh Sharma, Digantara
Anirudh Sharma is the founder and CEO at Digantara He co-founded the company in 2018 with the goal of creating a sustainable space environment using patented technology he developed during his university days. Prior to launching Digantara, Anirudh co-founded and led his university student satellite team, where he developed satellite ground stations and gained hands-on experience designing space systems. He has significant leadership experience overseeing space initiatives. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science.
David Moyer, Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad
He joined the U.S. State Department in 2003 and his overseas assignments include Mexico, Vietnam, South Korea, and Cyprus. In Washington DC he served as Deputy Director in the U.N. Political Affairs office. David recently concluded a Pearson Fellowship as a Foreign Policy Adviser for Indiana Senator Todd Young. He has a bachelor’s degrees in Japanese and International Relations from Brigham Young University and an MBA from George Washington University. His wife Audrey is also a Foreign Service Officer and they have three sons.
Mekapati Gowtham Reddy, Minister of Information Technology of Andhra Pradesh
Mekapati Goutham Reddy (born 31 December 1976) is an Indian politician who is the current minister for Industries, Commerce, and Information Technology in the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He is a member of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly representing Atmakur (Assembly constituency) of Nellore district for the second time.
Mekapati Goutham Reddy’s father (Rajamohan Reddy) is the former MP of Nellore. Goutham Reddy Started his political journey with the YSRCP and was the Leader of YSRCP. Goutham Reddy is an Indian Politician the current Minister for Industries, Commerce, Information Technology in the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Day 3 - 11th December
09:00 - 10:00 AM - Check-in/morning tea
10:00 - 11:00 AM - First session: NVIDIA and SIDM
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Round table with the American aerospace and defense manufacturers. "Challenges and opportunities for startups with integration" Moderated by Erik Azulay - Pratt and Whitney, Lockheed Martin and Belcan
12:00 - 1:30 PM - Networking Lunch
1:30 - 2:30 PM - Third Session. Opportunities. iDEX
2:30 - 3:30 PM - How to run a Defense and Aerospace Startup? Roundtable with successful startups in the Defense and Aerospace Sector - 114AI, Digantara, and Morphedo
3:30 - 4:00 PM- Valedictory Address
Mr. David Moyer, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy
Special Address by Chief Guest Mr. Mekapati Gowtham Reddy, Minister of Information Technology of Andhra Pradesh
4:00 - 4:30 PM- High Tea Networking
Our Speakers
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary
Mr. Jayesh Ranjanis a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the 1992 batch and working in the state of Telangana. He holds a Masters Degree in Psychology from Delhi University, a degree in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Masters in Public Management from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He has also done short courses in the University of Birmingham (on Environmental Policy Analysis), JICA training Institute, Tokyo (on lake remediation), London School of Economics (on Globalization and Leadership), Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (in Public Policy), and Swedish Institute, Stockholm (on Sustainability and CSR). He is the All-India topper of his IAS batch of 1992. He was awarded World Bank’s Social Capital Visiting Scholarship in 2002 and the British Government’s Gurukul Chevening Scholarship in 2005. He has done international consultancy assignments for the World Bank, UN-ESCAP, Sedatu project of Mexico, and for international NGOs working for Youth Issues like YES, Inc of the USA and NMC from Italy. He is a part of the National Pool of Trainers in Leadership constituted by the Government of India, and is involved in training and mentoring newly recruited Civil Servants. Among his other distinctions, he was awarded the Royal Order of the Polar Star by His Majesty The King of Sweden in 2019 for promoting Swedish business interests in India including the opening of IKEA’s first Indian store in Hyderabad.
SGK Kishore, Executive Director – South Airports & Chief Innovation Officer – GMR Airports
Mr SGK Kishore is an Electronics & Communications Engineer from Andhra University and holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. A Rank holder during Engineering and a Gold Medalist during his Masters with a perfect-10 GPA, Mr Kishore’s illustrious career spans over 30 years across Government and Private sectors.
A 1989 Batch Officer of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Mr Kishore has held several important positions with the Government of India including:
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District Collector of Palakkad, Kerala
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Vice Chairman of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA)
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South India Head for Food Corporation of India (FCI).
In 2006, Mr Kishore resigned from IAS and took up a senior leadership role with the GMR Group. Over the years, within GMR Group, he has been the CEO of major Urban Infra/SEZ & City Development projects. In 2013, he took over as CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport with overall responsibility for the unique Hyderabad Airport Eco-system spanning the airport, the Airport City and various allied businesses.
Erik Azulay, MD, ACIR
Erik Azulay is a technology commercialization expert and serial entrepreneur specializing in small business startups and international market strategies. He has managed commercialization and incubation projects in 12 countries around the world, and launched and sold two logistics companies based in the United States and Russia.
Mr. Azulay's experience includes overseeing the creation and running of the National Technology Commercialization Center in Kazakhstan. Under his leadership the Center incubated Kazakh start-ups to bring their innovations to market and created a multi-million dollar small business commercialization grant program which continues to this day.
As President of the Alliance for Commercialization and Innovation Research, he currently runs the Nexus Innovation Hub and Incubator. The Nexus Incubator is funded by the U.S. State Department and showcases best practices in incubation and entrepreneurship from India and the U.S. In just four years of operation, Nexus startups have raised over $20 million in outside funding.
Joel Reifman, U.S. Consul General in Hyderabad
Consul General Joel Reifman assumed the post of U.S. Consul General in Hyderabad on August 20, 2019. Prior to this assignment in Hyderabad, India, Mr Reifman served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has served at the State Department in Washington D.C. in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and as Deputy Director of the Office of Aviation Negotiations in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. Mr. Reifman was also a Pearson Fellow in the Office of Senator Joseph Lieberman. Mr. Reifman’s prior overseas assignments include Senior Deputy Coordinating Director for Development and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Charge d’ Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea, Provincial Reconstruction Team Leader in Iraq’s western Anbar province, and Economic Counselor at both the U.S. Embassy in Panama and the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. Before joining the State Department, Mr. Reifman served as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University.
Krishna Kumar Jhala, Bharat Forge
Krishna Kumar Jhala is a retired Lieutenant Commander of the Indian Navy having a decade of experience in Naval Weapon, Sensors and Electrical Systems. He is an engineering graduate in Electronics & Communication and undergone Electrical Specialisation course in Naval Weapon & Sensors. During his stint with the Indian Navy, he has served on board Guided Missile Frigate, Indian Naval Academy and Naval Dockyard under various capacities. Post completion of ten years with the Indian Navy he joined Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharat Forge Limited, as Head of Operations.
Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri, Chairman & Managing Director, Ananth Technologies Limited
Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri is technologist with extensive experience in Space Program; founded “Ananth Technologies Limited (ATL)” in 1993.
ATL has been contributing for Design, Development & Fabrication of Satellite sub-systems and systems; complete assembly, Integration and Testing of Satellites (AIT) for National & International market. Contributing for Indian Launch Vehicle Programmes by way of making avionics sub-systems and integration of sub-assemblies for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles. Thus ATL contributed so far for 82 satellites and 65 launch vehicles for Indian Space Programme (ISRO). Also contributes to the area of satellite applications. ATL has facilities located in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram employing over 1200+.
William L. Blair, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India Private Limited
William L. Blair is a Vice President in Lockheed Martin and joined Lockheed Martin India Private Ltd as Chief Executive on 1 October 2019. He is responsible for leading and developing Lockheed Martin Corporation’s strategy for India and serves as the executive representative for all Lockheed Martin programs, products and services in the country. This is his third appointment in India with a multinational aerospace and defense company.
Previously, Mr. Blair served in a variety of senior leadership roles with defense and aerospace companies including the Raytheon (8 years) and GE Aviation (25 years). He was the Raytheon India Country Executive from 2010-2013 and GE Aviation India Country Executive from 2005-2008.
Mr. Blair graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is married and based in New Delhi, India.