mktg@astramwp.com, hr@astramwp.com
+91 40 46618000/ 8001
mktg@astramwp.com, hr@astramwp.com
+91 40 46618000/ 8001
Though Astra Microwave was founded with an interest to work on Defence opportunities, the telecom revolution in India coinciding with the company’s inception meant the early years was marked by a lot of requirements coming in from the customers who needed products for setting up their telecom base stations. It helped the company get a head start and also provided it with required time to make its mark in the tough defence electronics market.
Components and sub-systems for Radars were always a focus area for the company and the first few components that were built by Astra found their way into sub-systems of Radars developed by DRDO.
While addressing the requirements of the telecom industry, the promoters were also working with DRDO to get opportunities to design products for military applications. The first opportunities were received by the company to build products for Telemetry application.
Good orders from Telecom combined with fact that potential opportunities were already being generated in the defence area meant that there was an immediate need for Astra to invest in infrastructure, people and test facilities. This was the reason the company went public quite early. Astra Microwave was listed in the stock exchange in India in 1995.
1997 marked the first deliveries of modules that found application in Strategic Electronics & Telemetry program of the DRDO.
Astra Microwave started working in the complex field of EW in the year 2000. From a nominal start, Astra Microwave today has grown to be one of the important partners for DRDO, having supplied many critical and wide band products for EW application, especially in the Naval domain.
The invitation from ISRO for the Indian Private Industry to enter into the Space business in 2004 provided the right impetus for Astra Microwave to take up challenging work for components and sub-systems for Satellite Application. Astra Microwave is proud to have associated with all the major satellite launches in India since 2008.
In 2005, Astra Microwave decided to have a fabless design team in-house in order to design and develop critical MMIC’s for getting advantages of cost, design flexibility to help miniaturize modules and the ability to control production requirements of critical devices in house.
Thanks to the offset rule introduced by DPP 2006, many foreign OEM’s showed interest to work with Astra Microwave for discharging their offset requirements. The process of audits and vendor capability mapping starting in the year 2007.
Astra Microwave became one of the first beneficiaries of an offset contract having bagged the contract to manufacture receiver side modules in the year 2009 for radar application. The first products under this contract were delivered to the customer in 2010.
On the basis of domestic and offset work in the ratio of 50-50%, Astra Microwave crossed an annual turnover of Rs. 500+ Cr.
To move up the value chain by building Systems and have a strong presence in Bengaluru, where most of our Customers are based, Astra Microwave established an R&D Centre with System Integration & Testing facility
Completed supply of 10 nos. Ground Surveillance Radars to BSF
Completed delivery of 10 nos. X-Band Doppler Weather Radars to India Meteorology Department (IMD)
Delivered AAAU for Air-borne AESA Radar to LRD, DRDO and also delivered Land Based 7.3m Ground Telemetry System to ITR, DRDO
Delivered Phased Array Auto Track Telemetry System (PATM-II) to ITR, DRDO & Radiation Mode T&E Facility for Radar EW Systems to DLRL, DRDO
Delivered Multi Function Radar EW System Pulsed Phased Array Tracking Radar (PPTR) to PXE, DRDO & Delivered C-Band DWRs for IMD
Delivered Short Range Tracking Radar System (SRTR) to ITR, Multi-Channel Radar Emulator Simulator (MRES) to CASDIC and Compact Microwave Receiver System (0.5-40 GHz) to DLRL.
Though Astra Microwave was founded with an interest to work on Defence opportunities, the telecom revolution in India coinciding with the company’s inception meant the early years was marked by a lot of requirements coming in from the customers who needed products for setting up their telecom base stations. It helped the company get a head start and also provided it with required time to make its mark in the tough defence electronics market.
Components and sub-systems for Radars were always a focus area for the company and the first few components that were built by Astra found their way into sub-systems of Radars developed by DRDO.
While addressing the requirements of the telecom industry, the promoters were also working with DRDO to get opportunities to design products for military applications. The first opportunities were received by the company to build products for Telemetry / Missile application.
Good orders from Telecom combined with fact that potential opportunities were already being generated in the defence area meant that there was an immediate need for Astra to invest in infrastructure, people and test facilities. This was the reason the company went public quite early. Astra Microwave was listed in the stock exchange in India in 1995.
1997 marked the first deliveries of modules that found application in Telemetry/Missile Electronics for a Surface to Air Missile program of the DRDO.
Astra Microwave started working in the complex field of EW in the year 2000. From a nominal start, Astra Microwave today has grown to be one of the important partners for DRDO, having supplied many critical and wide band products for EW application, especially in the Naval domain.
The invitation from ISRO for the Indian Private Industry to enter into the Space business in 2004 provided the right impetus for Astra Microwave to take up challenging work for components and sub-systems for Satellite Application. Astra Microwave is proud to have associated with all the major satellite launches in India since 2008.
In 2005, Astra Microwave decided to have a fabless design team in-house in order to design and develop critical MMIC’s for getting advantages of cost, design flexibility to help miniaturize modules and the ability to control production requirements of critical devices in house.
Thanks to the offset rule introduced by DPP 2006, many foreign OEM’s showed interest to work with Astra Microwave for discharging their offset requirements. The process of audits and vendor capability mapping starting in the year 2007.
Astra Microwave became one of the first beneficiaries of an offset contract having bagged the contract to manufacture receiver side modules in the year 2009 for radar application. The first products under this contract were delivered to the customer in 2010.
On the basis of domestic and offset work in the ratio of 50-50%, Astra Microwave crossed an annual turnover of Rs. 500+ Cr.
To move up the value chain by building Systems and have a strong presence in Bengaluru, where most of our Customers are based, Astra Microwave established an R&D Centre with System Integration & Testing facility
Completed supply of 10 nos. Ground Surveillance Radars to BSF
Completed delivery of 10 nos. X-Band Doppler Weather Radars to India Meteorology Department (IMD)
Delivered AAAU for Air-borne AESA Radar to LRD, DRDO and also delivered Land Based 7.3m Ground Telemetry System to ITR, DRDO
Delivered Phased Array Auto Track Telemetry System (PATM-II) to ITR, DRDO & Radiation Mode T&E Facility for Radar EW Systems to DLRL, DRDO
Delivered Multi Function Radar EW System Pulsed Phased Array Tracking Radar (PPTR) to PXE, DRDO & Delivered C-Band DWRs for IMD
Delivered Short Range Tracking Radar System (SRTR) to ITR, Multi-Channel Radar Emulator Simulator (MRES) to CASDIC and Compact Microwave Receiver System (0.5-40 GHz) to DLRL.
(Whole Time Director – Strategy and Business Development)
Atim serves on the Board of Astra Microwave Products Ltd, a public listed company, which designs, develops, and manufactures RF / Microwave systems and sub-systems used in defense, space, meteorology, and telecommunication. Atim has been a shareholder of Astra for nearly two decades now and is recognized as a value added long term investor.
Atim has invested in various early-stage companies too while helping them scale up.
Atim has been the Founding Partner of Frontline Strategy Limited, which was the investment manager/advisor for two Mauritius based India centric Private Equity funds: Strategic Ventures Fund (Mauritius) Limited and India Industrial Growth Fund Limited.
Atim has over 3 decades of well-rounded exposure to financial markets across various roles such as Portfolio Management, Equity Sales, and Equity Research with global institutions like ABN AMRO Bank and ANZ Grindlays Bank. After a stint in the equity research at H/G Asia, India, Atim moved to New York City with ABN AMRO Inc., where he set up the sub-continent equity sales desk. He thereafter set up Frontline Strategy Limited in Mauritius and Singapore.
Atim has lived and worked in India, the USA (New York region for 10+ years), Singapore (for 17+ years) and is currently based in India. Atim Kabra has majored in Economics (Honors) from Hindu College, Delhi University and has a Master’s in Management Studies from NMIMS,Bombay University.
Atim is also actively associated with organizations promoting equitable and sustainable livelihoods for remote rural communities subsisting in or around biodiversity-rich areas of India; with a mission to promote socially just policies and practices of conservation and livelihood through field initiatives in the areas of sustainable livelihood, research and education for vulnerable, poor and marginal households.
Atim writes and comments extensively on global tech, economic and political developments and is an avid follower of global geopolitical scenarios.
(Managing Director)
A graduate in Science and Mathematics and Fellow Chartered Accountant.
Worked in private sector industry and gained over 33 years of experience in accounting, finance, taxation, secretarial etc.
(Independent Director)
Mrs. Anuradha Mookerjee, M.Phil (Defence and Strategic Studies) and a seasoned bureaucrat with over three decades of experience in Indian Revenue Services, she holds valuable insights into the socio-economic fabric of our nation. As a social anthropologist, she strives to bridge the urban-rural gap in India.
Mrs. Mookerjee is a topper of the 1986 batch of the Indian Revenue Service.
(Independent Director)
Mr. Venu Raman Kumar is a serial tech entrepreneur and private equity investor. He is the founder and former Chairman/CEO of M*Modal Inc., a Nasdaq-listed healthcare technology company that was acquired for over $1 billion in 2012. He later founded Aeries Technology, a global provider of tech and digital transformation services, which went public on Nasdaq in 2023 (AERT).
In 2016, he launched CASHe, a leading Indian fintech platform offering digital credit to underbanked millennials. He also serves on the board of T-Hub, a premier tech incubator, and was appointed Chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship Network India in 2017.
Mr. Kumar has received multiple honors, including Entrepreneur of the Year (Maryland, 2007) and Serial Tech Entrepreneur of the Year (2019, Entrepreneur India). He is also a limited partner in several international private equity funds.
(Joint Managing Director)
A Graduate in Engineering (Electronics) and a Post Graduate in Business Administration, Mr. M.V. Reddy has 28 years of experience in handling Marketing and Business operations in the domain of Defense, Space and Telecom segment in India and Overseas Market.
As most of his experience has been working for the Indian Private industry meeting the needs of the Strategic Electronics sector in India and abroad, he has a good understanding of the requirements and knows the challenges and opportunities for the private companies in this business segment.
(Non-Executive Director)
Mr. Suresh Kumar Somani, is a businessman, investor and philanthropist with a substantial experience of over 40 years in equity markets. Driven by passion and versatility, he motivates, trains, and coaches the members of Ratnabali Group to drive progress and reach the Company’s milestones. A high-energy individual who is passionate about making a difference in the society, he is committed towards building, guiding, and uplifting ‘India Autism Centre’ – an inclusive community for those under the spectrum of Autism.
(Founder)
P.A. Chitrakar had been with the Defence Electronics Laboratory, Hyderabad, as a scientist for over 20 years before co-founding Astra Microwave.
P.A. Chitrakar had been with the Defence Electronics Laboratory, Hyderabad, as a scientist for over 20 years before co-founding Astra Microwave.
An MSc (Physics) from Mysore University and an MTech (Advanced Electronics) from JNTU, Hyderabad, Mr. Chitrakar is an expert in, among others, the design of microwave components.
(Chairman & Independent Director)
Dr. Avinash Chander is the former Secretary, Defence R&D and Director General, DRDO. An eminent scientist in the field of missiles, he has been a pioneer in Strapdown Inertial navigation & Guidance.
In addition, he has contributed in the development of several critical technologies in the field of radars, simulation, propulsion, control and System engineering.
(Independent Director)
I have 38 years of experience in governance and have held senior positions in decision making capacities in practically all sectors – the developmental, agricultural, social, industrial, infrastructural, transportation, economic and regulatory. I joined Government in 1975, after standing first in the combined merit list for IFS/IAS, and opting to serve in the IAS.
I have worked with distinction in areas as diverse in their geography and the nature of their problems as the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Goa, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Arunachal Pradesh. About half my career has been in Government of India, in the Ministries of Human Resource Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Textiles and Shipping, where I have been instrumental in shaping policy for elementary education and growth of textiles in a globally competitive market; preparing programmes for slum housing; crafting regulation for cleaner air in Delhi by the introduction of CNG buses and four stroke autorickshaws; and designing stimulation packages for the housing construction and textile industries in the two-humped economic downturn since 2008. My longest stints have been in Education and Textiles; I have left a mark also in the shipping sector and the Delhi transport department. I retired in the rank of Secretary to Government of India, in 2013, after being one of the lon gest serving secretaries to government with almost five years of service in that rank. Post retirement, I was appointed as Chairperson, Board of Governors of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), a deemed university set up under an Act of Parliament, for a three year tenure, from 1-04-2013 to 3103-2016.
I have had several years of corporate experience during my career, having served as Government Director or Chairman on the Board of several CPSUs, or supervised their functioning. These included the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation,the Delhi Metro, the National Housing Bank, the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, the Cotton Corporation of India, the Central Cottage Industries Corporation, etc.
