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Baskar Ceri has more than 2 decades of experience across various Industries (Aerospace, Defense, Research, Automotive, Railways, Software Services, etc.) playing various roles starting from Engineering, Sales, Business Development, Operations to General Management.

Baskar started his career at NI in Austin, USA and was part of the 2-member team that started NI operations in India growing the team and the revenue to multi million dollars in India.

After his initial corporate role, Baskar founded an Engineering Services Company to provide Deep-Tech Engineering Solutions to Indian Defense, Space & Automotive companies and later founded a Knowledge Engineering Products company, the first Indian company to build products & systems that improve Safety & Efficiency of Railway Assets. Baskar has also been involved in several acquisitions & divestments during his experience & currently serves on the board of several companies and has keen interest in mentoring & building world changing companies. Baskar holds an Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from BITS-Pilani, India and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, USA.

In his current role at NI, Baskar serves a dual role as Global Director of Business Development of ADG BU to build strategies and execute the business growth of the Aerospace & Defense Business across the globe with Regional Sales, and in India as Managing Director of NI-India, responsible for NI India growth and development.

Dr. Ch. V. N. Rao joined the Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, in 1989 after completing his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Over the past three and a half decades, he has played a pivotal role in the development of microwave remote sensing payloads for India’s Earth observation and planetary missions and has been one of the principal architects of ISRO’s microwave sensing programme.

Dr. Rao has been the lead designer and key contributor in the realization of numerous state-of-the-art microwave payloads, including C-band Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) for RISAT-1, EOS-04 and EOS-09; Ku-band Scatterometers for Oceansat-2, SCATSAT-1, EOS-06 (Oceansat-3) and Oceansat-3A; RISAT-2B series payloads; Ka-band Altimeters for Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3; and the landmark NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission. His contributions have been instrumental in establishing India’s indigenous capabilities in advanced microwave remote sensing technologies.

As a visionary technologist and team leader, Dr. Rao has successfully led multidisciplinary teams in developing complex and cutting-edge payloads, including India’s first SweepSAR-based S-band SAR for the NISAR mission. He has made significant contributions to indigenous technology development, strategic self-reliance, and successful technology transfer to Indian industries for the production of flight-qualified hardware.

Dr. Rao completed his Ph.D. from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), Gandhinagar, in 2019. His research contributions are reflected in over 150 peer-reviewed publications, more than 500 citations, and six patents.

He is a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), a Senior Member of IEEE, and a Life Member of the Astronautical Society of India (ASI), Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS), and Indian Society of Systems for Science and Engineering (ISSE).

Presently, Dr. Rao serves as Distinguished Scientist and Associate Director (Research & Development) at SAC, ISRO, where he provides strategic leadership for advanced research and technology development in microwave remote sensing, satellite communications, navigation systems, quantum technologies, terahertz technologies, and airborne as well as spaceborne sensing systems. Under his guidance, SAC continues to advance cutting-edge technologies that strengthen India’s capabilities in space science, Earth observation, communication, and strategic applications.

Throughout his illustrious career, Dr. Rao has demonstrated exceptional technical leadership, innovation, and commitment to excellence. His pioneering contributions have significantly strengthened India’s capabilities in microwave remote sensing, Earth observation, planetary exploration, and strategic space technologies. He is widely recognized for nurturing teams, promoting industry participation, and advancing novel technologies, including innovative microwave resonator-based accelerometer systems.

Dr. Rao’s distinguished contributions have left an enduring impact on ISRO’s remote sensing programme and continue to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Microwave Remote sensing data has been employed for multitude of critical applications like National natural resources assessment, cyclogenesis, crop acreage and forecast, assimilating in to Numerical weather prediction etc. This has the advantage of all weather data collection, cloud penetration capability vis-à-vis the Optical remote sensing, which has been the most widely used method. ISRO has been having a structured Microwave Remote sensing program catering to the national needs, which has resulted in indigenously developing technologies and techniques on-par with other developed nations. Building these Sensors like Synthetic Aperture Radars, Scatterometers, Altimeters, Sounders, Radiometers, Ground Penetrating Radars etc. calls for various state-of the art developments in low power as well as high power technologies covering frequency ranges from UHF to sub-mm wave.

The talk covers the broad sensors concepts and the various RF technologies being employed in Indian Microwave Remote sensing systems, which also supported the historic Moon Landing by India.

As space and defence converge into a single, resource-constrained strategic domain, nations face an uncomfortable truth: technology superiority alone no longer guarantees security or mission success. Asymmetric threats, compressed innovation cycles, and the concurrent demands of national development are rewriting the rules of engagement: in orbit and on the ground.

Compounding this challenge is a structural paradox: the rate of technology evolution now consistently outpaces the speed of system design and realization, creating a widening gap where every fielded solution risks obsolescence before operational maturity: A progressive asymmetry that favors the nimble disruptor over the established power. Cyber-physical systems are responding to this pressure through a decisive architectural shift: from hardware-centric philosophy toward software-first agility, progressively becoming software-defined and ultimately software-dominated platforms where capability refresh, mission adaptation, and threat response are delivered through code rather than re-engineering.

This talk examines how Digital Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and autonomous systems can deliver meaningful capability gains without the unaffordable promise of a clean-slate restart. Through a pragmatist’s lens, anchored in India’s space and defence imperatives and informed by global experience, it proposes an Agility-First, Build-to-Last Architecture for navigating Zero-Margin-of-Error Missions in an era of abundant aspirations and finite resources.

Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay serves as the Lead Chief Technologist at Synopsys, Inc., headquartered in Sunnyvale, USA. In this capacity, he provides strategic counsel to senior executives across global enterprises on technologies pertaining to digital engineering initiatives. His domain of expertise encompasses model-based engineering, open collaborative ecosystems, software-defined systems, and AI/ML-driven analytical frameworks for data-informed decision-making. Holding a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and possessing several decades of distinguished professional experience, Aniruddha is recognized as a subject matter authority in the Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, and High-Technology sectors. His present responsibilities center on the formulation and execution of technology adoption strategies designed to accelerate product design and validation, thereby enabling continuous design iteration across global supply chains and R&D organizations. In addition, Aniruddha leads a dedicated R&D team based in Pune, India, focused on the automated synthesis of cyber-physical systems and mission architectures, virtualization, IT-OT integration frameworks, and the deployment of embedded digital twins at the edge.