Abhay Karandikar

Abhay Karandikar (born June 15, 1965) is an Indian educator, engineer, innovator, and administrator best known for his work in the telecommunication sector in India. Currently, he is serving as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India from October 2023 onwards. Previously, he served as the Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur from April 2018 to September 2023. Prior to that, Karandikar held a number of positions, including Dean (Faculty Affairs), Head of the Department of the Electrical Engineering, and Institute Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He was one of the founding members of Telecom Standards Development Society of India and appointed as its first Vice Chairman from 2014 to 2016, and then was appointed its Chairman from 2016 to 2018. He was chairman of the committee to give recommendations to Government of India on size, scope and quantum of spectrum for experimental spectrum license for 5G.

Karandikar has also contributed to conceptualization and establishment of new technical standards work programmes for TSDSI. In 2016, he was awarded with IEEE SA's Standards Medallion for his work to Indian Technology, Policy and Standardization with IEEE guidelines.

He is a Member (part-time) of TRAI and serves on the boards of Central Electronics Limited, CSC WiFi Choupal Services Ltd, National Rail and Transport Institute, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India Police Foundation and Chairman, Board of Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology, Guwahati. He also serves as member of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).