INS Vikrant, the ship that saw action in the 1971 Indo-Pak war operations in the Bay of Bengal, was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1961 and, after a glorious 36 years of service to the nation, was decommissioned in 1997. During this period, she actively projected India’s sea power in the Indian Ocean region and played an instrumental role in the defeat of Pakistan that led to the creation of a new nation - Bangladesh. Despite the concerted efforts of the Indian Navy, the State and the Central Government to preserve Vikrant as a museum, she could not be retained and finally had to be sent to the scrapyard in 2014. At our online talk #INSVikrant, Commodore Medioma Bhada (Retd.) will, with the technical assistance from the Maritime History Society, offer tribute to the iconic aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy.

About the speaker:
Commodore Medioma Bhada (Retd.), an alumni of the National Defence Academy, was commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1962. A fighter pilot by profession, he had participated in the 1971 Bangladesh operations as a pilot in INAS 300 from INS Vikrant. He was a flying instructor at the Air Force Flying Academy and also one of the faculty of the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington. Commodore Bhada has commanded a naval air squadron and two naval air stations, and was a Director of the Naval Air Staff at NHQ. He has also commanded two IN warships. He retired from the Navy on superannuation in 1994 and worked in the Corporate world thereafter.