Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur, has been appointed as Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet accepted the choice on Saturday (16 September).

Prof Karandikar will function DST Secretary from when he takes cost of the submit till he turns 60.

He will take over from Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, who assumed extra cost in July this yr, over and above his function as Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, after Dr S Chandrasekhar stop as DST Secretary on “personal grounds” six months earlier than the tip of his tenure.

Prof Karandikar specialises in wi-fi communications, with analysis pursuits together with high quality of service and useful resource allocation in wired/wi-fi networks, TV white house and its potential for reasonably priced broadband entry in India, and frugal 5G and rural broadband.

The DST said on X that “wireless communication expert” Prof Karandikar “developed the concept of “Frugal 5G Network” to enable affordable rural broadband connectivity & contributed to telecom policy & regulations that were included in national-level telecom policies.”

Additionally, he led a nationwide effort to arrange the Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI), the nation’s requirements physique for telecommunications. He served as its founding member and chairman.

The TSDSI is now a part of 3GPP, or the third Generation Partnership Project, and is a member of the Global Standards Collaboration.

The 3GPP unites seven telecommunications commonplace improvement organisations, enabling them to provide the stories and specs that outline 3GPP applied sciences.

“TSDSI is expected to influence next general telecom (especially wireless) standards through Indian requirements,” according to Prof Karandikar.

The IIT Kanpur Director was additionally a member (half time) of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from January 2017 to January 2020.

Prof Karandikar has been with IIT Bombay for over two and a half many years, with the final a number of years spent on the helm of IIT Kanpur, as nicely.

After joining IIT Bombay in 1997, he led the Computer Centre from August 2008 to July 2011 and the Department of Electrical Engineering from January 2012 to January 2015.

He then served as the primary professor-in-charge of the IIT Bombay Research Park (2014-17) and subsequently as Dean (Faculty Affairs) from February 2017 to April 2018.

Thereafter, on depart from IIT Bombay, the place he’s a professor within the Department of Electrical Engineering, he moved to IIT Kanpur and began serving as Director from 18 April 2018.

Outside of academia, Prof Karandikar has based and mentored startups in telecom and networking.

He serves on the board of a number of firms, together with on the Board of Governors of IEEE Standards Association.

He is a member of the Technology Innovations Group on 6G and chairs the 6G Spectrum Task Force arrange by the Department of Telecom.

Earlier, he had additionally chaired the 5G Spectrum Policy Task Force.

Besides his contributions to IEEE and 3GPP requirements, he has authored chapters in books and papers in worldwide journals and conferences. He has quite a few patents filed and issued, as nicely.

Further, he has served because the Coordinator of National Center of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security (NCETIS).

The NCETIS focuses on the expertise necessities of safety businesses, the state and central police forces specifically. It might be a useful resource centre for India’s police.

Among the awards Prof Karandikar has obtained are the IEEE SA’s Standards Medallion in December 2016 and the Mozilla Open Innovation problem prize received by his group in March 2017 for work on rural broadband and digital empowerment in rural India.