Wing Commander Sham Rao was commissioned in the year 1961 and having held various assignments in different types of units with outstanding professional competence, he graduated from the DSSC in 1973. He served as SO to the CI (Air) for about 2ﾃつｽ years prior to his posting to the Directorate of Financial Planning in Aug 77. He took over the job of Assistant Director (Cost Analysis) at time when draft plan 1979-84 was being formulated. He very ably contended with the intricacies of the planning process and contributed significantly in the making of the plan and its formulation by the target date. He also very ably assisted in the preparation of briefs to the Committee of Defence Planning and provided the justifications for many on going and new schemes and the necessity for resources allocations.

In the preparation of rolling plan 1980-85 and annual plan 1980-81, he again displayed outstanding initiative and completed the difficult task which covered acquisition cost of major weapon systems with different mix and varying payment patterns in record time. He devised the format and procedure for monitoring both physical and the financial progress of approved schemes from various sponsoring and procuring agencies as a result of which the progress in the implementation of the plan and review of approved schemes could be effectively monitored.

The introduction of costing of courses at Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment, a very complicated process, was also done under his guidance. In addition, rational allocation of overheads on different courses being run at training institutions was made possible only through his professional competence.

He has been responsible for the scrutiny of various price proposals of HAL products and through incisive scrutiny substantial savings in the areas of Dakota servicing, HS748 for photo-survey role, RMS orders for spares were identified.

For his distinguished services of a very high order Rashtrapati is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Wing Commander Sham Rao.

Group Captain Sham Rao was commissioned in 1961. He has successfully held AVSM 1990-91 various field and staff assignments and has graduated from the Defence Services Staff College. The officer was commended twice by Chief of the Air Staff in 1979 and 1983 and was awarded Vishisht Seva Medal in 1981.

He joined Dte of Financial Planning as Joint Director in May, 1985. He oversees all financial aspects relating to Five Year Plans, Annual Budgets, Foreign Exchange requirements and monitoring the performance with special reference to modernisation programme. Despite stringent economic conditions obtaining throughout the plan period 1985-90, not only the plan projections were accepted but through relentless efforts, higher annual allocations have also been secured to meet maintenance and onﾃつｭgoing requirements and also provide for urgent new modernisation programmes. His thorough understanding of the financial system, total commitment, detailed and timely analysis and proper presentation of facts with convincing arguments have resulted in high quality output, highest standards of data credibility, costﾃつｭeffectiveness and optimal utilisation of limited resources.

In formulating the Draft 8th Air Force Plan 1990-95, he has done considerable research work by liaisoning with Planning Commission, Indian Statistical Institute and other agencies for determination of resource and assessing maintenance and onﾃつｭgoing commitments. The study has helped the Planning Branch in preparation of various models so that the 8th Plan could be submitted to MOD with authentic and irrefutable facts and figures for acceptance and also for better appreciation and implementation. He has successfully introduced computerisation in the Directorate which, besides reducing manual work, he has helped in speedier analysis and informed decisionﾃつｭmaking relating to budget and plan. This system is going to be of immense value for long time to come.

Group Captain Sham Rao, VSM has, thus, rendered distinguished service of an exceptional order.