This paper gives an overview of the configuration and design of a Compact Hyper spectral imager with feature of having selectable bands in the visible and near infrared spectral region of 0.4 to 0.9?m. The instrument is configured for spatial resolution of 500m and swath of 128Km from 700Km polar orbit with a 12-bit quantization. The instrument will have three selectable modes of operation within the spectral range. Mode-1 will be the full range high resolution (?? ? 6nm) in 512 continuous bands, mode-2 will correspond to full range coarse resolution (?? ? 10nm) in 64 continuous bands and mode-3 will cover any octavo in the full range at high resolution in 64 continuous bands. In mode-1 the data rate will be around 21.5Mbps and in the other two modes the data rate will be one eighth of mode-1. Linear Variable Filter for spectral separation and Active Pixel Sensor area detector are used to achieve the compactness of the instrument, which will be weighing less than 4Kg. Feature of selectable gains by ground commanding to operate at a higher gain is also planned. The expected power dissipation of the instrument is <10W. This single unit compact instrument, which can be launched in any micro satellite mission, shall have application in gathering contiguous ocean-atmosphere data in the VNIR region at variable spectral intervals depending on the chosen mode of operation.