VICE ADMIRAL K K NAYYAR FELLOWSHIP CONFERENCE

To honour the multitudinous achievement of the late Admiral, his family instituted “The Vice Admiral KK Nayyar Fellowship” at the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), in May of 2020. The fellowship promotes and supports intellectual and policy-relevant research on subjects of maritime consequence to India and, in doing so, commemorates the life and achievements of this evangelist of Indian maritime thinking.

The inaugural research project of the fellowship has addressed the issue of India’s Coastal Resilience vis- à-vis it’s Urban Agglomerations. Dr Chime Youdon, Associate Fellow, NMF, and Dr Saurabh Thakur, now Consultant, UNODC, were the first Fellows of this fellowship and have undertaken a major research project of great contemporary and future relevance, entitled “Rising Seas and Coastal Impacts: Metropolitan Resilience in India”. This monograph, which is the result of that project, addresses the resilience of Indian interests and infrastructure in and off India’s coastal stretches in general and in its major coastal cities in particular, in the face of the adverse maritime impacts of climate change. The monograph offers eloquent testimony to the late admiral’s vision of nurturing an intellectually effervescent maritime India.

ABOUT  VICE ADMIRAL K K NAYYAR

The late Vice Admiral Kewal Krishan Nayyar, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on the first day of January in the year 1951. Right from his earliest days in the navy, he established a reputation for conceptual brilliance, coupled with a well-adjusted Seaman’s Eye for detailed planning, and a consistent demonstration of outstanding tactical-, operational- and strategic acumen in the execution of his plans. Successive stints in the Directorate of Naval Plans at Naval Headquarters (as it was then known) honed his analytical dexterity and financial skills to a fine edge. However, he was certainly no armchair admiral, as his distinguished sea-going tenures clearly demonstrate. Besides commanding several frontline surface combatants, including the Rana and the Delhi, the two cruisers that were, at that point in time, very much the Indian Navy’s pride and joy, he had the rare distinction of commanding both, the Eastern and the Western Fleets of the Indian Navy. Vice Admiral Nayyar retired in 1986, after having helmed the Southern Naval Command as its Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, and, having tenanted the high post of the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. To read more about the fellowship, Click Here.