Er. Bharat B Bhatia

Er. Bharat B Bhatia graduated in Electronics and Communications engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 1974 and joined the Indian Government as a Radio Regulatory Service (IRRS) officer where he worked in various departments for 21 years as a senior spectrum regulator and ICT policy specialist. He also worked in Motorola for 22 years where he was heading the international spectrum team of Motorola Solutions Inc. until 2018.

Currently, he is the President and CEO of the ITU-APT Foundation of India (IAFI) and Vice Chairman for Asia Pacific for the World Wireless Research Forum (WWRF). Earlier he was also the President of TEMA – India’s Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association and Vice President of the Association of Telecom Industries of Singapore (ATIS).

Mr. Bhatia was a senior policy regulator with the Indian Government in India’s Ministry of Communications and Ministry of the industry for 22 years and was instrumental in the opening of the Indian telecom sector to the private sector, including the licensing of first-ever GSM metro cellular in India through a beauty contest in 1992 that was designed and managed by him. He was also a key architect of India’s first-ever National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) in 1981 and the first-ever published NFAP in 2000. After taking voluntary retirement from the Government of India service in 1996, He joined Motorola Inc. USA, based in Singapore, where he was head of Motorola’s international spectrum team until recently.
Mr. Bhatia has been actively participating in International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN agency for ICT meetings for the last 24 years and is currently the chairman of the ITU working group on 5G for industrial applications. Mr. Bhatia frequently travels all over the world to speak at various conferences and events. He was the originator of ITU Resolutions on Public Safety and Disaster Relief in 2003 and 2015.
Shri Bhatia is a fellow member of IETE, the Institution of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineers. He did his Foundational Course from Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in 1976 and has completed several management courses from various institutes and universities including the National University of Singapore and George Washington University, USA.