Air Commodore Prashid Basu (13828) AE (L) was commissioned in the IAF on 06 Jan 75. During his career spanning 30 years, he had held important field and staff appointments which includes Engineering officer in Helicopter Unit, Directing staff at training Establishment and Commanding Officer of Signals Unit. The Air Officer is functioning as Principal Director Signals (Air) at Air HQ (VB) wef 08 Jun 05.

On assuming charge in this key appointment, he took a number of initiatives towards modernizing VHF/UHF communica tion and recording equipment, crystallizing requirements for Disaster Management Communication. He rationalized the on going projects and provided alternate solutions for special operational projects, which resulted in a saving to the exchequer of several crores of rupees. He took additional initiative to liaise with MoD and obtained clearance for a large number of projects which had been delayed for many years.

Amongst the major achievements of Air Officer has been the finalisation of deal with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, wherein he orchestrated a modus operandi to modernize and enhance the operational communication of the IAF. The entire project for the Indian Air Force is being funded by Ministry of Communication & IT at a cost of approximately Rs 650 crore. It was his special management skills which resulted in conclusion of the project to lay fibre optic cables and end equipment at 152 locations in the IAF, in return for releasing additional bandwidth for civil mobile operators. Air Commodore Basu has thus laid the foundation for an 'Information Expressway' with the state-of-the-art communication equipment, to meet the operational requirements of the IAF for the next 20 years. The Project definition includes structured cabling an optical fibre across 152 IAF locations and end-to-end secured communication solutions based on voice-data-video convergence, integrated messaging system, implementation of Data centers and high-speed backup SATCOM system.

For his distinguished service of high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Air Commodore Prashid Basu.