Rear Admiral GK Harish, AVSM, VSM (Retd)
Rear Admiral GK Harish (Retd)
Distinguished Alumni Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Nation
Award Year: 2022 | Degree Year: 1989
Rear Admiral GK Harish obtained his Post Graduate Diploma in Naval Construction (DIIT) from IIT Delhi in 1989. He is a graduate in Civil Engineering from NIT Suratkal in 1986, and MTech in Ocean Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1997.
Rear Admiral GK Harish has been an integral part of the Indian Navy’s vision for “Make in India” which has resulted in a transformation from Buyers Navy to Builders Navy. Indian Navy has contributed to India’s “Atm Nirbharata” dream by taking on the performance liability for warship design, thus de-risking the construction of complex combat platforms by Indian Shipyards. During over 18 years of his stint at the Navy’s Design organisation, his structural design team of Shivalik Class Frigates developed a unique superstructure expansion joint. As Director General Naval Design (DGND), he steered the functional design and construction of warship building projects costing over one lakh crores viz, Kamorta Class Corvettes, Nilgiri Class Frigates, Visakhapatnam Class Destroyers, and the Aircraft Carrier Vikrant. The crowning glory of his leadership as DGND was the delivery of the first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier “Vikrant” built at CSL. This landmark event in the 75th year of our independence, is a major milestone in the history of indigenous warship building, as it heralds India’s entry into a select group of nations that can design and construct aircraft carriers. To ensure further scaling up of indigenous design capabilities, the officer envisioned and obtained government approval for the transformation of the Indian Navy’s Design organisation to a Warship Design Bureau.
Rear Admiral GK Harish has also made significant contributions in creation of modern world-class infrastructure at Karwar as Additional Director General at Project Seabird. As Captain Superintendent of Naval Ship Repair yard Karwar he led operationalisation of a new repair organisation besides accomplishing very challenging repair/modernisation work as Senior Manager Fabrication Department at Naval Dockyard Mumbai. He has also played an important part in Shipbuilding policy formulation and institution building, besides authoring papers for enhanced and progressive maturity of Indian shipbuilding ecosystem.
Rear Admiral GK Harish was awarded Ati Vishist Seva Medal by the President of India on 10 May 22, and Vishist Seva Medal by the Chief of Naval Staff on 03 Apr 2013. He was also awarded SAM Dhotiwala Award, by the Institution of Naval Architects in 1997, for his work on design of planning hull forms as part of his M.Tech course.
In honouring Mr. GK Harish, IIT Delhi recognizes the outstanding contributions made by him to the Design and Technology Leadership. Through his achievements, Mr. Harish has brought glory to the name of the Institute.
