DR. V. NARAYANAN
Dr. V Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space & Chairman ISRO is a Distinguished Scientist in APEX Scale and is also the Chairman of the Space Commission. As the Chief of India’s Space Agency, he provides techno-managerial leadership for achieving excellence in Space Transportation, Infrastructure and Space applications benefitting common citizens of our country as well as creating and nurturing a vibrant space eco-system in India. He is spearheading the complex cutting edge technology developments feeding to national missions laid out as per the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India like Gaganyaan programme, Chandrayaan-4, Venus mission, Bharathiya Anthariksh Station, Next Generation Launch Vehicle and many more including an Indian landing on the moon and returning safely. The country has already achieved the distinction of being the 4th country in the world to achieve Space DOCKING under his leadership. He has successfully accomplished the 100th Launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR.
Previously, he was the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) - the lead centre for liquid propulsion development for all launch vehicles and spacecrafts of ISRO for a period of 7 years having campuses at Trivandrum and Bangalore. As Director, he has provided able leadership in Chemical and Electric Propulsion Systems, Control Power Plants, and Transducers development for Space health monitoring and built huge infrastructure. He was also the Chairman of LPSC – ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC ) Co-ordination Committee, overseeing the activities of IPRC.
Dr. V Narayanan had a brilliant academic career as he completed his M. Tech in Cryogenic Engineering with 1st rank and PhD in Aerospace Engineering both from IIT, Kharagpur and has held key & strategic positions in ISRO for the last 41 years.
He has played the lead role in Cryogenic engine and stage development which made India one among six countries to have the coveted cryogenic capability and ensured self reliance in Launch Vehicles.
Towards LVM3/Chandrayaan-2 & 3 missions, played key role in development of propulsion systems for launch vehicle & spacecrafts which took the spacecraft from Earth to the moon’s orbit and Throttleable propulsion system of the Vikram lander used for soft landing. He was the Chairman of the National Level Expert Committee for Chandrayaan - 2 setback and recommended necessary improvements which led to the success of Chandrayaan-3 making India the first country to soft-land near south-pole of Moon. In similar lines, he has played major role in various other national missions like Adithya L1, One Web India missions etc. He has drafted the propulsion Roadmap of ISRO and as Chairman of Space Transportation System Project Management Council drafted the Roadmap of STS. He has lead Joint Working Groups of India-France and India-Russia for co-operation in Space Programme.
Recently, Dr Narayana led a high-level delegation which was instrumental in finding out the root cause of the Liquid Oxygen leakage in the Falcon-9 vehicle and helped rectifying the issue ensuring safety of the astronauts onboard Axiom-4 mission, which otherwise would have led to catastrophic failure.
Dr. V Narayanan, in his illustrious career, has been honoured with more than 25 most prestigious awards including Distinguished Alumni Award & Life Fellowship Award from IIT, Kharagpur, Gold Medal from Astronautical Society of India (ASI), APJ Abdul Kalam award, ISRO Performance excellence award etc. and awarded 2024 Laurels for Team Achievement for Chandrayaan 3 by International Academy of Astronautics. He has been conferred with Honoris Causa from Sathyabama Institute of Science & Technology, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi and Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi.
Dr. V Narayanan is member and fellow of a large number of prestigious National and International scientific & technical forums including Space Propulsion Committee of International Astronautical Federation (IAF), International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Fellow and Governing Council Member of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, President of the Indian System Society for Science & Engineering etc. Dr.Narayanan has also published large number of technical papers including 1200 internal ISRO reports, 50 Journal & conference papers and few numbers of book chapters.
S. Nambi Narayanan
S. Nambi Narayanan was born on 12 December 1941 in the house of Tamil Hindu parents in Nagercoil, in the erstwhile Princely state of Travancore (present-day Kanyakumari District). He completed his schooling at Higher Secondary School, Nagercoil. He received a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. After studying mechanical engineering in Madurai, Narayanan started his career in 1966 at ISRO as a technical assistant at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. He obtained his post graduate degree of Master of Engineering Science from Princeton University, USA in chemical rocket propulsion from the department of Aero Spaces and Mechanical Sciences under Professor Luigi Crocco. He returned to India with expertise in liquid propulsion when Indian rocketry was still solely dependent on solid propellants. He is also a NASA fellowship holder.
Nambi Narayanan possesses an impressive 35 years of hands-on experience in effectively managing liquid propulsion systems and launch vehicles. He served as a project director and led the realization of the second and fourth liquid stages of PSLV. This demonstrated, for the first time, high efficiency and complex liquid stages for the Indian Launch Vehicle Programme. He is a persuasive and resolute leader with a proven track record of realizing challenging space missions with exceptional throughput.
He contributed to the total planning of the Launch Vehicle Program of ISRO. His major contribution is the Vikas Liquid Propulsion System used in PSLV and GSLV rockets including Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan. This includes a 600 KG Liquid Rocket known as LP006 to 60 tons Vikas Engine used in the second stage of PSLV/GSLV. The Vikas engine is used as a strap-on for both GSLV and PSLV and is successfully used in Mangalyaan and Chandrayaan Missions. He has also worked as project director of cryogenic system project. He has worked very closely with legends in the field of Rocketry such as APJ Abdul Kalam, Dr Vikram Sarabhai and Prof Satish Dhawan, Dr Brahm Prakash, and Prof U R Rao. He has contributed for a period of 35 years to the growth of ISRO from its inception and has been awarded PADMA BHUSHAN by Govt. of India in 2019.
By honouring S. Nambi Narayanan, MMMUT Gorakhpur is celebrating the success saga of one of the reputed scientist of ISRO in the country, who is a role model and source of inspiration for millions of young men and women in all walks of life. It is both an honour and a privilege to confer upon S. Nambi Narayanan, the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on this day, 29th of August, 2024.
Er. Elattuvalapil Sreedharan
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, born on 12th June 1932 at Karukaputhur, near Pattambi, Kerala, had a brilliant academic career and took his degree in Civil Engineering in 1953 from the Government College of Engineering, Kakinada. He had a small stint as lecturer in Civil Engineering in the Government Polytechnic, Kozhikode and later as Sub Engineer in Bombay Port Trust before he entered the elite Indian Railway Service of Engineers in December 1954.
As an Executive Engineer he come into spotlight when he restored the 126 spans of Pamban Railway bridge, which got washed away by tidal waves on 22nd December 1964, in a record time of 46 days as against the target of 6 months set by Railway Ministry. He held many challenging and responsible posts on Indian Railways and retired in 1990 as Member Engineering, Railway Board and as ex-officio Secretary to the Government of India.
With his background of successfully executing many railway projects including new railway lines, doubling projects, tunnels and bridges, he was specially chosen after his retirement to head the 760 km long prestigious Konkan Railway Project from Mumbai to Mangalore which he completed within an incredibly short period of
7 years, in spite of severe resource crunch and very difficult terrain conditions.
After completing Konkan Railway, Government selected him to head the prestigious Delhi Metro Project. The first phase of Delhi Metro covering 65 kms costing Rs. 10,500 crores was completed 3 years & 9 months ahead of schedule. This was followed by the 2nd phase covering 124 kms at a cost of Rs. 24,000 crores which was completed in 4.5 years-a world record. The 3rd phase of the Delhi Metro covering 143 kms at a cost of Rs. 40,000 crores which is now in progress was initiated by him. Today, Delhi can boast of a world class Metro which is the pride of the nation.
Following the success of Delhi Metro, Dr Sreedharan has been spearheading the spread of Metro systems to other State capitals. In the process, metro projects are now coming up in many cities in India. His pioneering contribution to the Delhi Metro and spreading Metros to other cities earned him the nick name “Metro Man”.
Though he retired from Delhi Metro in December 2011, he is still active as the Principal Advisor, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), overseeing Kochi Metro. As Planning Board Member of Kerala State, he initiated many steps for road safety and helped the State Government on transport infrastructure. He is now Advisor to Uttar Pradesh Govt. for bringing Metros to Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Agra and Gorakhpur. He served in the High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST) of United Nations to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon in the years 2015 to 2017.
Dr. Sreedharan is a recipient of many prestigious awards from the Government and professional bodies in India and abroad. To mention a few, Times of India adjudged him as the “Man of the Year” in 2002. The TIME MAGAZINE chose him as one of the ASIAN HEROES in 2003. The President of French Republic awarded him the highest civilian honour of “Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” (Knight of the Legion of Honour) in 2005. He was named one of the “Top 25 newsmakers of 2005” by US’s premier Publication on construction industry “Engineering News Record”. He was awarded “The Person of The Year” by the India Vision News channel in 2006. He was given “Man of the Year Award for Public Service” and “Indian of the Year Award” – from CNN-IBN in 2007. He has been bestowed with the second highest award of Japan by emperor of Japan “The Order of Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star” on 06th November, 2013. Government of India awarded him “Padma Shri” in 2001 and “Padma Vibhushan” in 2008. He has been awarded 16 Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Science by IITs/Universities in the recent past.
By honouring Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, MMMUT Gorakhpur is celebrating the success saga of one of the reputed Civil Engineer of this country, who is a role model and a source of inspiration for millions of young men and women in all walks of life. It is both an honour and a privilege to confer upon Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on this day, the 24th of August, Two Thousand and Eighteen.
Er. Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy
Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, born 20 August, 1946 in Shidlaghatta, Chikkaballapura district Karnataka, founded Infosys in 1981. Infosys is, today, a highly-innovative software services global company listed on NYSE in the US and on the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai with about US$ 11 billion in revenue and US$ 45 billion in market capitalization. Mr. Murthy conceptualized, articulated and implemented the Global Delivery Model (GDM) which has become the backbone of the Indian software industry. GDM is based on collaborative distributed software development principles and has resulted in the delivery of superior quality software to global customers delivered on time and within budget. Mr. Murthy also introduced the concept of 24-hour work day to the world.
Under Mr. Murthy’s leadership, Infosys became the leader in innovation in technical, managerial and leadership training, software technology, quality, productivity, customer focus, employee satisfaction, and physical and technological infrastructure.
In 2014, Mr. Murthy was ranked 13th among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders and listed among the ‘12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time’, by Fortune in 2012. He has received Legion d’honneur from France, CBE from Britain and Padma Vibhushan from India. The Economist ranked him among the 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005. Mr. Murthy is ranked among the top 10 of the Financial Times’ list of “Business pioneers in technology”, published in March 2015. He is the first Indian winner of Ernst and Young’s World Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Mr. Murthy was elected as a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. He is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He received the Founders Medal in 2018, the Hoover medal in 2012 and the Ernst Weber Medal in 2007, all the three from IEEE. He has received Thomas Jefferson medal and James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award.
Currently, Mr. Murthy serves on the boards of Ford Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey and the United Nations Foundation. He has served on the boards of HSBC and Unilever, both headquartered in London. He has served as a member of the boards of various well-known universities in the US like Cornell University, Wharton School, the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and the Rhodes Trust at Oxford. He was the Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmadabad), the number 1 business school in India, and the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI).
He is a member of the advisory board of the University of Tokyo (Japan), ESSEC Business School (France), IESE Business School (Spain) and Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC – Brazil). He has also served on the international advisory boards of Yale University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, Singapore Management University INSEAD, Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok), the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad), and the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. He is married. His wife, Sudha, is a well-known author. They have two children
By honouring Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, MMMUT Gorakhpur is celebrating the success saga of one of the reputed Indian IT Industrialis of this country, who is a role model and a source of inspiration for millions of young men and women in all walks of life. It is both an honour and a privilege to confer upon Narayana Murthy, the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) on this day, the 22th of August, Two Thousand and Nineteen.