New Delhi: The Board of Deeppropulse Aerospace (D-Propulse) is delighted to welcome Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Former Secretary, DRDO and Past Member, Niti Aayog, as Chairman of the Board of the Company. Dr. Saraswat joined the Board on 8th June 2026. The Board members, including CEO, Saurav Jha, are excited as this marks a new trajectory for the company.
Dr. Saraswat is one of India’s most storied scientists and a doyen of combustion engineering with decades of experience across several complex technology programmes. His guidance and mentoring will accelerate the development of the D-propulse’s unique cutting-edge rotating detonation engine (RDE) technology. Besides being the chief developer of key strategic delivery systems such as the Prithvi, Dhanush and Agni-V ballistic missiles, he is also the main architect of India’s ballistic missile defence programmes. There could be none better to guide D-Propulse through India’s industrial and policy environments as it moves to compress timelines for the development of RDE-powered high-speed flight vehicles.
With the energy and passion that Dr. Saraswat brings, D-Propulse will quickly deliver sovereign aeropropulsion capability for India. This tracks with the overall national focus on deeptech technologies to put India at the forefront of scientific & technology growth for both itself and the world. Reflecting on these exciting times, Rajnish Kapur, Managing Partner at the IAN Alpha fund, believes that ‘India cannot build long-term strength in deeptech by remaining dependent on imported critical technologies, particularly in aerospace and defence’ and that it is this ‘conviction which drove IAN’s investment in D-Propulse’.
Delighted by the new development at the D-Propulse board, Kapur says that ‘Dr. Saraswat is a rare combination of deep domain expertise and policy wisdom. As a key architect of India’s Prithvi missile programme alongside Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, few can match his depth and experience in not just building technologies from the ground up, but more importantly, in deploying them. Having engaged with him personally, I have found his sharpness and clarity of thinking exceptional. He understands exactly what customers need and how to solve those problems. For someone of his calibre to join the board and steer D-Propulse is a strong validation of the technology and the mission, and it makes the path to sovereign aero-propulsion capability considerably shorter and surer.’
Commenting on this fantastic development for D-Propulse, Founder & CEO Saurav Jha says that ‘Every startup has pivotal moments beyond funding announcements. In that light, Dr Saraswat’s support is a huge vote of confidence not just in D-Propulse’s technology path, but also in the company’s overarching mission as well, which is to ameliorate India’s key strategic weakness – the lack of deep IP in homegrown air-breathing aero-propulsion technology.’
This is also a reunion of sorts, because D-Propulse’s CTO, Dr V. Ramanujachari, who is the pioneer of RDE technology in India, has been associated with Dr Saraswat since President APJ Abdul Kalam’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme days.
Both Dr Saraswat and Dr Chari are very excited to mentor D-Propulse’s growing team of young scientific and technical talent focused on advancing D-Propulse’s proprietary air-breathing RDE technology for both drones and missiles. D-Propulse’s RDE technology boasts a thrust to weight ratio that is up to 3x that of legacy aeropropulsion technology such as ramjets and gas turbines. RDEs have zero moving parts, exhibit 15-25% higher thermal efficiency than legacy aeropropulsion systems and are much more compact, as compared to ramjets or gas turbines of an equivalent thrust capacity. D-Propulse is leveraging these key advantages of RDE technology to develop both faster and longer-ranged high-speed systems for India.
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