After much dilly-dallying, the Centre has finally constituted the Executive Council of the first national aviation university of the country named after former Prime Minister, the late Rajiv Gandhi. President Pranab Mukherjee, as Visitor of the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU), has approved a nine-member council drawn from various fields forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office early this month.
The members include Vice Chancellor of RGNAU Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Nalin Tandon, Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey, Indigo co-founder Rahul Bhatia and Air India official Captain (Retd) Ashvini Kumar Sharma. Other members are Civil Aviation Principal Secretary S P Goyal, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra, Blue Dart Aviation ltd Chairman Tushar Jain and International Air Transport Association (IATA) India Director Amitabh Khosla.
“The Council has members appointed after meticulous selection. The Centre is keen on starting the university’s full operation as soon as possible. The council will submit a report to the PMO after which the executive powers and academics among others will be decided,” said Civil Aviation Ministry official.
While Tandon is the V-C of the RGNAU, Choubey is in the list as ex-officio member. He is now instrumental in making a road map for the divestment plan of national carrier Air India. Goyal has been taken since in his prior assignment he served as Joint Secretary Higher Education in the HRD Ministry. Mohaptra’s expertise in managing the affairs of airports favoured him and Bhatia’s expertise in Airline operations from scratch will be used by the RGNAU. “Since IATA is the main arm of aviation industry, Khosla too was an obvious choice,” official added.
Sharma, CEO of Air India Air Transport Services limited, has been inducted as the lone Expert Member. Sharma currently heads a workforce of over 12000 employees who take care of grounds handling services at about 80 airports. “Sharma was instrumental in initiating the idea of separate Haj Terminals. He also has understanding of aviation commerce. Under him, AI’s london, Tokyo and couple of other operations recorded the highest revenue results,” Ministry official said. Another senior level engineer, Ravi Menon, executive director, Air Works at the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, AI, has also made it in the first executive council for his rich experience in aircraft & aeronautical engineering.
The university would promote aviation studies, training and research with focus on emerging areas like aviation management, aviation regulation and policy, aviation history, aviation science and engineering, aviation law, aviation safety and security and aviation medicine. The MK Kaw Committee had recommended the setting up of such a university in 2006.