Call for Nominations for TSDSI OTC Award – FY 2025-26 | open till 21 May 2026
It is well known that Standards development in an SDO is generally a multi-stage process spanning ideation- scoping- formal inception- contributions- drafting- approval. This requires persistent efforts over a long period of time. However, each stage in the development is important and requires specialized skills.
The TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award has been instituted to recognize the efforts and contributions of individuals in progressing development of a standard or report. It will recognize an individual’s efforts in contributing to and/or championing a technical activity within TSDSI during the financial year (April through March).
The nominee should be from a bonafide TSDSI member organization for the period in consideration. The award will be for an individual and not a team. The nomination must relate to current, active work in TSDSI in the FY 25-26.
It may be noted that this award is different from the TSDSI Hall of Fame Technical Excellence Award in the following manner:
| Outstanding Technical Contributions Awards | Hall of Fame- Technical Excellence Awards |
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Call for Nominations:
This is a Call for Nominations for TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award FY 25-26 for SG-Networks and SG – Services and Solutions.
The Nomination window is open from 9 April 2026 till 21 May 2026 End of Day. A member organization may nominate individuals in format prescribed in Annexure A, by the due date. The nomination forms should be submitted to Mr A K Mittal for SG – Networks and Mr Vijay Madan for SG – Services and Solutions respectively by email.
Rules for Nomination:
- Awards will be given SG wise. Each SG will have a separate Jury.
- The award will recognize technical work carried out by the nominee in the FY period (April 2025– March 2026).
- Details of the Contributions of nominee to TSDSI Study Groups and Global SDOs in this period should be provided – towards NIPs/SWICs/Technical Reports/Standards.
- Nominees to be individuals from bonafide TSDSI members only.
- Nominee must be a resident of India and working in India.
- Nominations can be made only by Members.
- Members can submit multiple nominations of different individuals.
- Self-nomination by a member can also be done.
- Nominations will not be rolled over to next year.
- Jury members are not eligible for being nominated.
- Jury Committee will comprise the SG chair, Vice Chair, Secretariat Technical Advisor and Director General. Convener of the committee are Mr A K Mittal for SG -Networks and Mr Vijay Madan for SG – Services and Solutions, respectively.
- Jury members should not nominate anyone for the awards. However, they can solicit nominations.
- Jury members are selected in their individual capacity.
- A Maximum of 2 awards can be given in a category.
- The jury may choose not to select anyone for the awards if no one suitable is found.
- Eligibility Criteria and Assessment methodology for Outstanding Technical Contributions Awards are given in Annexure B.
The “Awards Panel” constituted for evaluating the nominations is provided in Annexure C.
*** Annexure A: Award Nomination Format ****
| Name of Nominee, their present affiliation, and role (as applicable) in TSDSI | |
| Name of Nominator, their affiliation and role (as applicable) in TSDSI | |
| Date of Nomination | |
| Brief description of Nominee’s engagement with TSDSI | |
| Recommendation with justification for nomination
Kindly provide information in line with the eligibility criteria and assessment guidelines Note: The nominee’s contributions/activities must be within the period in question (FY 25-26) |
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| Contact details of the nominee | |
| Contact details of the nominator |
*** Annexure B: Outstanding Technical Contributions Award Nomination – Eligibility Criteria and Assessment Guidelines ***
Nomination Eligibility Criteria:
- Evaluation will be done based on contributions made by the nominee to Technical Reports or Technical Standards that have already been published/ or approved in the period in question (FY 25-26).
- Only following contributions will be considered:
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- Original contribution
- Contribution derived from work done elsewhere (other SDO/SSO/forums)
- Following activities will not be considered for the award:
- Transposed /copied/mirrored from work done in an external body
- AS-IS transposition/adoption of Standards from other SDOs
- A Technical Report/Standard will be considered only once. i.e., in case a report/standard is being quoted in multiple nominations, the jury will consider it only once – for the most significant contribution case.
- Nominations of persons who made Contributions jointly can be considered.
- Nomination can list contributions to multiple Reports/Standards that are eligible in the period in question (FY25-26).
Assessment Guidelines:
| Level | Outcome |
| Level 1 | Publication of TR |
| Level 2 | Publication of TSDSI Standard |
| Level 3 | Adoption of TSDSI Std into National SSO /TEC level Standard |
| Level 4 | Adoption of TSDSI Std into International SDO/SSO Standard |
| Level 5 | Adoption and impact of TSDSI Std in the Industry / Regulator / Policy / User group |
- Increase in Level provides higher weightage (For e.g., Level 2 has more weightage over Level 1 and so on)
- Original contribution has more weightage over derived contribution. (Exception/Caveat: Jury may provision for contributions to existing standards like 3GPP/ITU-R which are incremental, derived and might need to be backward compatible)
Weightage shall be awarded as per jury discretion based on impact of the contribution (major/medium/minor).
**** Annexure C – Awards Panel ***
“Awards Panel” constituted for evaluating the nominations for FY 25-26 is as follows:
| Role | Jury Members SG – Networks (SGN) | Jury Members SG- Services & Solutions (SGSS) |
| Members | Mr Abhijeet Masal, Chair – SGN
Dr Sonali Garg, Vice Chair – SGN Mr A K Mittal, Advisor- Networks & Director General, TSDSI |
Mr Niranth Amogh, Chair – SGSS
Ms Gomathy Padmanabha, Vice Chair – SGSS Mr Vijay Madan, Advisor & Mentor – SGSS Mr A K Mittal, Director General, TSDSI |
| Convenor | Mr A K Mittal, Advisor- Networks | Mr Vijay Madan, Advisor & Mentor – SGSS |
Standards development in an SDO is a multi-stage process spanning ideation- scoping- formal inception- contributions- drafting- approval. This requires persistent efforts over a long period of time to produce the Technical Reports and Technical Standards. However, each stage in the development is important and requires specialized skills.
The TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award has been instituted to recognize the efforts and contributions of individuals from TSDSI member organizations in progressing development of a standard or report. during a financial year (April through March) in the two Study groups of TSDSI- Networks and Services & Solutions groups.
The TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions (OTC) Awardees for Financial Year 2024-25 were felicitated on 18 July 2025, as part of the concluding day activities of TSDSI Tech Deep Dive (TTDD) 2025 Conference in Research & Innovation Park, IIT Delhi. TSDSI is grateful to Mr Satish Jamadagni, Chair TSDSI for conferring the awards.
TSDSI is grateful to the jury of experts for selecting the awardees.
The TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award recognizes the efforts and contributions of individuals in progressing the development of a standard. It recognizes an individual’s efforts in contributing to and/or championing a technical activity within TSDSI during the year (April through March). The efforts may either have given the desired results or have the potential of yielding significant results.
Awardees for Financial Year 2023-24 were felicitated on 19 July 2024, as part of the concluding day activities of TSDSI Tech Deep Dive (TTDD) 2024 Conference in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. TSDSI is grateful to Ms Tripti Saxena, Sr. DDG and Head, Telecommunication Engineering Centre, Department of Telecommunications, Govt. of India for taking out the time to confer the certificates to the awardees. TSDSI is also grateful to the jury of experts for selecting the awardees.
Awardees of the Outstanding Technical Contributions for FY 2023-24:
| Dr. Rashmi Kamran Bhatia
IIT Bombay |
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| Ms. Shwetha Kiran
IIT Bombay |
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| Dr Paventhan Arumugam
ERNET India |
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| Mr. Sandeep Agrawal
C-DOT |
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The TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award recognizes the efforts and contributions of individuals in progressing the development of a standard. It recognizes an individual’s efforts in contributing to and/or championing a technical activity within TSDSI during the year (April through March). The efforts may either have given the desired results or have the potential of yielding significant results.
Awardees for Financial Year 2022-23 were felicitated on 6 October 2023, as part of the concluding day activities of TSDSI Tech Deep Dive (TTDD) 2023 Conference in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. TSDSI is grateful to Ms Gunjan Dave, Member (T), DoT, Govt. of India for taking out the time to confer the certificates to the awardees. TSDSI is also grateful to the jury of experts for selecting the awardees.
Awardees of the Outstanding Technical Contributions for FY 2022-23:
| Dr Anand Srivastava IIIT-Delhi |
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| Dr Vivek Ashok Bohara IIIT-Delhi |
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| Mr Ankit Mahajan Sensorise Smart Solutions Private Limited |
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| Mr Niranth Amogh Nokia Solutions and Networks India Pvt Ltd |
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TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award has been constituted to recognize the efforts and contributions of individuals in progressing development of a standard. It will recognize an individual’s efforts in contributing to and/or championing a technical activity within TSDSI during the year (April through March). The efforts may either have given desired results or have the potential of yielding significant results.
The second edition of these awards for the Financial Year 2021-22 was held in the TSDSI General Body e-Meeting #19 on 24 January, 2023. The awardees received a certificate, conferred virtually, from Shri Ritu Ranjan Mittar, Sr DDG & Head TEC-DoT, Govt. of India.
Awardees of the Outstanding Technical Contributions for FY 2021-22:
| Dr Abhishek Thakur
IDRBT |
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| Mr Srinivasan Radhakrishnan
Sooktha Consulting Pvt Ltd |
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Standards development in an SDO is generally a multi-stage process spanning ideation- scoping- formal inception- contributions- drafting- approval. This requires persistent efforts over a long period of time. However, each stage in the development is important and requires specialized skills.
TSDSI Outstanding Technical Contributions Award has been constituted to recognize the efforts and contributions of individuals in progressing development of a standard. It will recognize an individual’s efforts in contributing to and/or championing a technical activity within TSDSI during the year (April through March). The efforts may either have given desired results or have the potential of yielding significant results.
The first edition of these awards for the Financial Year 2020-21 was held in the TSDSI General Body e-Meeting #17 on 1st February 2022. The awardees received a certificate, conferred virtually, from Ms Deepa Tyagi, Sr DDG- TEC.
Awardees of the Outstanding Technical Contributions for FY 2020-21:
| Ms Priyanka Dey CEWiT |
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| Mr Vinay Shrivastava Reliance Jio |
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| Mr Kaarthik Sivakumar CISCO |
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| Mr Harpreet Singh CISCO |
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