Vandana Aggarwal | IFSCA Committee | GOI

In episode 7 of Flightpath with Alok, Alok is joined by Dr. Vandana Aggarwal, who superannuated from the Indian Economic Service, having last served as a Senior Economic Adviser, in the Government of India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation. Dr. Aggarwal currently serves on some high-level governmental bodies, that is, a Member, of CSIR-NAL Research Council for Development of Aviation and Aerospace Sciences and Technologies; (b) Lead Expert for Course Consolidation at the Indian Maritime University; (c) Chairperson of the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) Committees for seeding greenfield businesses in India’s GIFT-City, including Aircraft and Ship Acquisitions, Leasing and Financing under Project Rupee Raftaar and SAFAL. In addition, Dr. Aggarwal serves as an Independent Director on the Board of M/s. Blue Dart Aviation Limited, India’s longest-serving private cargo airline. She has majored in Economics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and holds a Ph.D. in Finance wherein her thesis was on Investment and Regulatory Aspects of Deep-Sea Mining.  Dr. Aggarwal gives us some fascinating insights from the perspective of being a career civil servant and economist in various Ministries of the Government of India for over 36 years.
In this, the 7th episode of Flightpath, we are given glimpses from behind the curtain on the workings of government in conceptualising, designing, and implementing public policy reforms. The focus will be on the topic of innovation and strengthening of aviation-related regulatory regimes in order to successfully and swiftly establish India as a globally competitive commercial aircraft financing and leasing hub.
If you are wondering whether a career in aviation is for you, and in particular if India will provide you with the opportunities you seek, then this episode is certainly worth a listen.

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Transcript

Alok: So, after scouting the globe the last many months, and speaking to a lot of senior leasing industry executives, I’ve finally managed to request and get time from a senior bureaucrat of the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry, an ex-bureaucrat, if I may just add. However, who is not in the mould of a typical bureaucrat, one that I’ve ever known. Her name is Ms. Vandana Aggarwal. Or rather I should say, Dr. Vandana Aggarwal. And she has played a key role in setting up the policy, and bringing about the rules and regulations and changes in the Indian Aviation space, specific to aircraft leasing and financing. Welcome Dr. Vandana. It’s a pleasure to have you in the show.

Dr. Vandana Aggarwal: Thank you, Anand. And to all our viewers, Anand is a ragtag whom I know for the last five years. I call him a ragtag simply because he's irrepressible, not for any other reason. I mean it in a nice positive way. So, well, presently, I'm holding a few positions. I'm member of the Research Council for Aerospace and Aviation of the Government of India, which is a high think tank on both aerospace and aviation matters, a small but high think tank, level think tank. The other is that I'm a member of the advisory councils for Indian Maritime University. I'm also a lead expert for them on course coordination. And finally, I'm also an independent director with Blue Dart Aviation, which, as you know, has been India's, was India's sole cargo carrier and for the last 27 years of its existence, has been profitable each year. Right through COVID and right through the global financial crisis as well. I'm not sure whether there are many cargo carriers which can boast this record.
I also continue in two capacities which is as chairperson of the IFSC authorities, that is the International Financial Services Centres authorities committees which were set up, one for aircraft financing and leasing. And the report was presented and the ecosystem that has been developed is a result of that committee's work. So although I say it's an IFSC authority committee, so the implementation is happening through that, but the committee was actually set up by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under a project called Rupee Raftar. The second committee which is an IFSC authority committe