Vakkaleri Narayana Rao (21 December 1921 – 13 August 2009) was an Indian defence scientist and one of the pioneers of Electronic Warfare in India.
He started his career as a trainee at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at the Radio department but left the job after two months to join the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) as a research assistant where he assisted Vikram Sarabhai at his research laboratory set up in Pune.
[1] Later, on receiving a scholarship, Rao moved to the UK and did training at British Broadcasting Corporation and the Marconi College of Wireless Communications in Chelmsford followed by a stint of research at the Manchester College of Technology (MCT), University of Manchester, which earned him a patent for his work there.
[4] On his return to India in August 1948, Rao joined the All India Radio as an Assistant Engineer at the High Power Transmitting Station (HPT), Delhi where he worked till his appointment as a lecturer at the department of electrical communication engineering[clarification needed] in 1949.
[5] When the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DERL) was established by the DRDO in 1962, Rao was made the founder director.