Ajay Khare, deputy general manager (Design) at HAL, has received the prestigious Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) award for 2020 for his outstanding work in full life cycle development of Indigenous mission and safety critical avionics systems, starting from conceptualization and design to certification and production.

He received the award at a digital event held Sept. 27, 2020, on the occasion of the 63rd IETE Convention. The award consists of a citation, a medal and a plaque. Khare delivered a lecture on the occasion.

The annual award, instituted by Dr. R. K. Tyagi, former chairman of HAL, in memory of his late father Devi Singh Tyagi in 2016, is given to an eligible technocrat or a scientist or an engineer or an academic for outstanding contribution in the field of avionics and defence electronics that results in strategic and commercial advantage towards meeting the national objective of “Make in India.”

“I am proud that Mr. Khare has received the award this year. Over the years, HAL has been making concerted efforts in its R&D programs and is also facilitating indigenization at a greater scale. We are seeing positive results,” said R. Madhavan, CMD, HAL.

Khare’s remarkable contribution has resulted in establishing two successful avionics product lines (mission computers and solid state flight data recorders) in HAL. 

The variants of indigenously designed and developed mission computers and solid state flight data recorders have been deployed in different aircraft platforms. Khare works at Mission and Combat System (MCSRDC), HAL’s R&D center in Bengaluru.

The awardee list includes Shri P. Balasubramanian (2019, Scientist F, DRDO), Shri Amit Tiwari (2018, BEL), Dr. Jayakumar M (2017, Scientist G, ISRO) and T. S. Padma Priya (2016, HAL).