Group Captain Narayanan Vijayakumar (12725) Accts was commissioned in IAF on 26 Jun 71 and on that occasion was awarded CAS Medal, Best All-rounder Trophy and the President's Plaque for Best Officer trainee. Since then the officer held several important and varied appointments in his career. He has been commended earlier by the CAS and AOC-in-C. He has authored many papers and has developed a number of softwares on Public Fund and Non-public Fund subjects for the benefit of officers posted to field Units. The officer was additionally tasked by Air HQ on the Revision of AF Officers Appraisal System, where he was the team leader during 95-98. His revised designs of the Appraisal System were implemented in IAF with effect from Jan 98. The officer is highly qualified academically and professionally and is sought regularly as a guest speaker in many AF Training Institutions.

Since his posting as C Accts O to HQ TC with effect from 17 Jun 98, Gp Capt N Vijayakumar has been excelling in each area of his function. He took a large number of measures to closely monitor the state of management accounting of Non-Public Funds. As a result, there has been significant improvement in this generally weak area of administration. He streamlined the budgetary control system on locally controlled heads and ensured availability of sufficient funds to all Stations/Units. He was instrumental in introducing an effective monitoring system for the AOC-in-C on the delegation of financial powers exercised by the Staff officers at HQ TC. A noteworthy achievement is his compilation of all accounting rules, regulations and procedures on ATG, which have been issued to all Training Institutions for guidance and adherence.

Gp Capt N Vijayakumar personally designed and implemented the LAN for admin branch at HQ TC. Another significant performance by the officer is the achievement of a record lowest figure of outstanding audit objections for Training Command for AAC 9899 which was possible due to his close interaction with all audit agencies and relentless pursuit of a number of cases with the audit and Air HQ. In the management of Command Welfare Fund, he devised newer methods of budgeting, processing of applications for grants, control of expenditure and made available more funds of welfare measures to stations. As PMC of the Command Officers' Mess during the past one year, he has supervised the renovation of various facilities and has successfully planned and organised major parties, important functions and VVIPvisits in the Mess.

For distinguished service of a high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Group Captain Narayanan Vijayakumar.

Air Vice Marshal Narayanan Vijayakumar VSM (12725) Accts was commissioned in the IAF on 26 Jun 71 having been awarded the CAS Medal, Best All-rounder Trophy and later, the President's Plaque for Best Trainee Officer of 1971. The Air Officer has held several important field, instructional, command and staff appointments in his career. He has authored many papers on Public/Non-Public Fund subjects and Manag e ment topics. Other significant contributions by him are the successful completion of major redesigning of “AF Officers' Appraisal System" during 1995-98 and educating AF personnel on the “Air Warrior Concept" at units in the IAF through numerous lectures during 2001-02. As AOC, Air Force Central Accounts Office during 2003-04, he had brought in several improvements in the infrastructure, working environment and functional aspects which enhanced substantially the efficiency of the automated pay accounting services in IAF. The Air Officer is academically highly qualified including a Ph D and is the senior most Accountant Officer in IAF for the past three years. He was commended earlier by the AOCin-C and CAS and awarded VSM in 2001.

As ACAS (Financial Planning) at Air HQ wef Sep 04, he had been successful in getting larger share of budgetary allocations for the IAF with the budget for 07-08 standing at a record Rs. 27,259 Cr which is 28% of the Defence Budget. His personal monitoring and control ensured full utilization of the large allocations in the Capital Budget viz Rs 14,821 Cr in 04-05, Rs 12,560 Cr in 05-06 and Rs. 14,767 Cr in 06-07 despite many constraints. He also streamlined the revenue budget allocation system in and made available sufficient funds to all Air Force Establishments.

Under his able guidance, leadership and personal involvement, the Financial Planning he achieved a number of milestones. A major creditable performance is the savings worth Rs 1,300 Cr effected in nine capital acquisition contracts with HAL during the last three years due to stricter and intelligent scrutiny of price proposals, which helped in sparing precious financial resources for other capital commitments of IAF. Some of the important achievements during his present tenure include finalisation of the vexed and long delayed issue of Warranty Clause for HAL products; finalization of the long case of the Base Year Price revision for HAL products & supplies; getting the Govt letter issued as the first among the Services on the enhanced delegation of financial for IAF; introduction of Resource Management Concept to bring in cost consciousness at AF Stns; extending the Unit Costing System to all AF Stns and streamlining the utilization of the Foreign Travel Budget at Air HQ.

Air Vice Marshal Narayanan Vijayakumar VSM has thus rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.