Dr. Ishwar Basavaraddi is the Director of Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India, since June 2005. Earlier, he worked as Instructor, Lecturer and Head of the Deptt. of Yoga Studies, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka for 16 years. He has more than 28 years of professional experience in Yoga education, therapy and research. He has imparted Yoga training and therapy to more than Eighty thousand people of all sections of the society.

Dr. Basavaraddi is basically a Physicist having done his M. Sc. in Physics. Later he turned to Yoga and Yoga Philosophy. He did M. A. in Philosophy and Ph. D in Yoga Philosophy. He has two Post Graduate Diplomas to his credit – one in Yoga Education and another in Computer Application. He has got Yoga training for Advanced Yoga Sadhana at eminent Yoga Institutes under reputed Indian Yoga Masters.

Dr. Basavaraddi has participated in more than 320 National and International Conferences and Seminars and presented research papers. He has delivered more than 1000 Lectures /Lecture cum Demonstrations and conducted  Yoga Workshops in different academic Institutions in India and abroad. He travelled abroad many times and represented MDNIY and Govt. of India. He is a member of several National and International committees/bodies of Govt. e.g. UGC, NCTE, NCERT,CBSE, SAI, ICCR, Railway Board  etc. and NGO. He assumed the additional charge of the newly created post of  Advisor (Yoga & Naturopathy) in the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India on 21.10.2019. He is the founder Secretary General of Indian Yoga Association a self-regulatory body of Leading Yoga Institutions of India. He was one of the main contributor for the successful organization of  International day of Yoga celebrations organized by Govt. of  India. He is also the main contributor  in developing Common Yoga Protocol booklet and its DVDs in 15 languages. He was the Master of Ceremony giving Yoga Instructions to more than 40 thousand people  including Honorable Prime  Minister of India, at Rajpat, New Delhi , which went onto create two Guinness world records. Several initiatives have been taken up under his stewardship to propagate and promote Yoga across the country and abroad.