Wing Commander Nanak Chand Kaushal was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on 01 June, 1961. The officer with a brilliant academic career also topped the course in Air Force Technical College. Wing Commander Kaushal while posted as Project Engineer (Communication Installation 'B') since September, 77 in the Radar and Communication Project Office, Ministry of Defence, was responsible for coordinating and monitoring the installation activities of highly sophisticated Electronics System of the Communication Project.

The task of completing installation, testing and commissioning was time-bound and the target of completing and installation of voice circuits systems set for January 1979 was to be achieved. The officer not only mobilized the resources available both men and material, but also with his personal efforts and not caring for personal comforts ensured achieving of the targets. His devotion to duty and unflinching determination and grit were the main factors which made it possible for meeting the objectives despite continued slippages in delivery of equipment by various suppliers in the concerned sector.

By his personal example and motivation he not only ensured commissioning of the system as schedule but also ensured operation and maintenance of the same to the highest standard with the limited resources available. It goes to the credit of the officer that during floods in 1979, in the area under his jurisdiction vital operational communications were kept fully serviceable when the P & T communications had totally broken down. Even when the task of extending TropoScatter communication between two distant opera tional air bases linked by vast communication was entrusted to him, he had within a short period of one week made it possible to achieve the objective of providing the desired vital communications. By his personal invol vement, a highly satisfactory communication was also made possible during a very important joint Army/Air Force operational exercise.

With his professional and managerial skill, exemplary zeal and unlimited energy to put in hard work far beyond the call of normal duties, he has rendered distinguished service of high order. For this Rashtrapati is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Wing Commander Nanak Chand Kaushal.

Wing Commander Promod Rewatiballabh Pande was commissioned in the Air Force in December 1963 and held variety of appointments which include Senior Signals Officer of a major Air Force base and Officer in Charge Repair and Servicing Section.

Because of his outstanding professionalism he was selected as Quality Control Engineer for the Tropo/Microwave system of the Air Force in Sep 77. This special task was completed by him resulted in high operational efficiency and system availability of 99%.

Wg Cdr PR Pande was made responsible for evaluating the performance of the newly commissioned communication system in some sectors. He assessed the Equipment, Installation and Performance status of each site and link meticulously. He contributed largely in assessing and evaluating the performance of the system.

Wg Cdr PR Pande has been responsible for commissioning the computer based system introduced for the first time in the Air Force for speedy clearance of telegraph messages. This challenging task was accomplished meticulously by Wg Cdr PR Pande resulting in the successfully commissioning of the system in the Air Force.

For his devotion to duty and skill, the President pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Wing commander Promod Rewatiballabh Pande.

Wing Commander Ram Prakash Sharma was a commissioned in the IAF in Jan 66. He has worked in missile squadrons of the IAF in various capacities and performed creditably in all his assignments.

He was posted to Radar Communication Project Office in Aug 75. From 1975 to 1978, he has engaged in planning and co-ordinating the system engineering aspects connected with a modern radar station which was to be installed at a location in the Western Sector. Planning for installation of a radar of this magnitude involved checking of civil engineering drawings, formulation of technical details of the various systems and coordinating the timely supply of various items of hardware from the various manufac turing agencies. Wg Cdr RP Sharma achieved all these tasks and contributed significantly to the commissioning of this radar.

Subsequently planning of the system engineering aspects of the medium power mobile radar was entrusted to this officer in 1978. The installation and integration of a variety of sub systems in the radar system entailed elaborate planning to correlate their technical parameters and coordinate the deliveries of all the sub stations by various agencies. By dint of his dedicated hard work, this officer has ensured that two of these radars are operational and evaluation of the third has been completed. Single handedly, this officer has prepared the integration document which defines the details of the task to be carried out for integrating the radar with the Data Handling and other systems.

For this high standard of professional skill initiative, devotion to duty and distinguished service throughout his career, the President is pleased to award Vishisht Seva Medal to Wing Commander RP Sharma.

Wing Commander Iqbal Singh was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on 06 Jul 64. After his initial training he served as Radar Officer in two missile combat squadrons.

In recognition of his exceptional performance in the guided weapons stream, he was specially selected and posted to Radar System Installation Unit on its formation in 1973 for installation of a radar under the Air Defence Ground Environment System Plan. While all officers posted to the Radar System installation Unit, on its formation have been specially trained for the task, in France and Italy, Wing Commander Iqbal Singh was the only exception. Because of his skill, caliber and competence, he was considered suitable for the task even without formal training. During this tenure he participated in the installation of radars at three locations. While serving as Senior Radar Systems Officer in one of the important Air Defence Radar Units of the country in the Western Sector he designed an electronic Coder using indigenous spares (worth Rs. 2000/-) as possible replacements for imported optical encoder costing over Rs. 2-3 lakhs each and saved valuable foreign exchange.

In Apr 86 he was posted to RCPO as a Project Engineer (Radar Systems). His duties included induction, planning procurement, monitoring, field installations and commissioning of radar and associated systems. Two high power static Radars were commissioned and availability of these two radars has enhanced the air deference capability of the Air Force. Wing Commander Iqbal Singh made a very significant contribution to the success of these tasks.

For his high degree of professional skill, leadership, devotion to the service, initiative, hard work and sincerity distinguished service of a very high order, the President is pleased to award Vishisht

Seva Medal to Wing Commander Iqbal Singh.

Air Commodore Romesh Chander Kakar (11481) AE (L) was commissioned on 01 Jan 1968 in the Engineering branch of the IAF. He has since held several important Staff and Command appointments including those of the Commanding Officer of a Tropo Communication Station and Deputy Director in an Inter Service Organisation Defence Image Processing and Analysis Centre (DIPAC). He has also undergone Tropo Communication Course from USA, Post-graduation (M Tech) in Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, Air Staff Course from Defence Service Staff College and Senior Defence Management Course from College of Defence Management, Secunderabad.

While the task of setting up an Air Defence Ground Environment System (ADGES) for the IAF was first initiated by RCPO in the early 1970s, the officer, as a young Flight Lieutenant, played a significant role in establishing and testing the communication links of Stage I & II of the ADGES plan. While at DIPAC, the officer was the Chief Coordinator in drawing up comprehensive details of the facilities to be established and in obtaining the CCS sanction for the same. In his current tenure at RCPO, as the Chief Systems Engineer, he has successfully managed to speed up the implementation of a series of important projects. An Automatic Control and Reporting Centre (Auto CRC), under development for a number of years, has been put to operational use, overcoming some of the long-persisting problems. Five new digital Line-of-Sight (LOS) links have been set up in the Northern Sector. A two KW digital tropo link has been integrated in the overall ADGES communication network using DIGITAL Cross Connect (DCC) and Trans Mux. As a result of his clear vision and a highly focussed approach, orders for an inter-services project of a high level of complexity have been placed in record time of just five months from the start of the project.

For distinguished service of a high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Air Commodore Romesh Chander Kakar.