M.S Velpari, has taken the charge as Director (Operations)-HAL from Sunil Kumar who superannuated on July 31, 2019. Earlier, he was holding the post of Chief of Project (LCA Tejas) at LCA-Tejas Division.

Velpari holds a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai and did his Masters from IIT Madras in Aircraft Production Engineering. He joined HAL in 1984 as Management Trainee (20th batch). He gained experience in the areas of manufacturing, assembly, design, product support, customer support, indigenisation and other management functions while serving at LCA-Tejas, Aircraft, Foundry & Forge Divisions in Bengaluru and Aircraft Division at Nashik. 

Velpari was instrumental in sustained growth of LCA production from initial two in FY 2015-16 to eight in FY 2018-19. He took path breaking steps with the strategic outsourcing of structural assemblies of LCA-Tejas, which is poised to grow further. He played a key role in implementing the task of indigenisation of 1850 types of castings, forgings, rolled rings and rubber products at F&F Division.

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