Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Last updated

Ashok Jhunjhunwala
Born (1953-06-22) 22 June 1953 (age 70)
Kolkata, India
Nationality Indian
Alma mater IIT Kanpur, University of Maine
Awards Padma Shri (2002)
Scientific career
Fields Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
InstitutionsIIT Madras Research Park, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, TeNeT Group
Website https://respark.iitm.ac.in/

Ashok Jhunjhunwala (born 22 June 1953) is an Indian academic and innovator. He received his B.Tech. (Electrical Engineering) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and PhD from the University of Maine. He has been a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras since 1981. [1]  He is the President of IIT Madras Research Park and Chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. During his career, he has contributed extensively to technology innovation and adoption in the Indian context.

Contents

Early life

Ashok Jhunjhunwala was born in Kolkata on 22 June 1953 in a Marwari family. His grandfather was a Gandhian and a close associate of Vinoba Bhave, working with Mahatma Gandhi. [2]

He studied in St Lawrence High School in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India, completing the Higher Secondary examination in 1970. He did his B.Tech degree from IIT Kanpur and MS and PhD from University of Maine, USA and was a faculty member at Washington State University.

Academic career

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala’s first appointment was in Washington State University, USA from 1979 to 1980. Prof. Jhunjhunwala then joined IIT Madras in 1981 in the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research areas include Optical Communication, Computer Networks, Wireless Communication, Decentralized(DC) Solar and Electric Vehicles, where he has significantly contributed in various dimensions.

Over the last few decades he has looked at cost and affordability of various components of the telecommunications and the Internet network, especially in the Indian context. [3] [4] He has worked on techniques to enable communication networks to reach remote parts of rural India. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] In recent times, he has made some significant contributions in Solar-DC and in battery systems for Electric Vehicles. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] He has guided more than 70 M.S. and Ph.D. students. [15]

Over the course of his career Jhunjhunwala has served as Chairman and member of various government committees. He has been on boards of several private companies and educational institutions in the country. He was on the boards of the State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Hindustan Teleprinters Limited, NRDC, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), VSNL and BSNL as well as Tata Communications, Mahindra Electric, Sasken, Tejas Networks, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd, Intellect and Exicom. As of 2020 he is on the board of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Chairman of IIITH and is the Chairman of Technology Advisory Committee of SEBI. [16] [17] In 2017 - 18, Jhujhunwala was on sabbatical from IITM, serving as the Principal Advisor to the Ministry of Power in the Government of India, and the Ministry of Railways in the Government of India, New Delhi. [18] [17]

Contributions in technology innovation and adoption

Industry-Academia Intervention and Incubation

When Dr. Jhunjhunwala joined IIT Madras in 1981, as an academician he observed that there was not enough interaction between industry and academic institutions. Industries did not invest in R&D of their own and preferred to import knowledge and technology. This resulted in unaffordable products and services which were available to only a section of the society. [19] He recognized that if products and services were to be used by the bulk of Indian Society they had to be made affordable. His idea was to develop technology in-house by mutual participation of both academia and industry. To further this objective Dr. Jhunjhunwala initiated the setting up of the IITM Research Park, adjacent to the IITM campus. [18] [20] The 1.2 million sqft space today has about 60 R&D centres of industries, working closely with IITM, thus creating an eco-system where faculty, students and industry professionals interact in a formal and informal manner. [21] He believes that such interaction is the key to technological innovations and entrepreneurship. Prof Jhunjhunwala's approach of collaboration with industry has resulted in development and adoption of technology at the grass-roots level.

Innovation in Telecom Networks

In the mid 90's his work on development of the corDECT Wireless Local Loop (WLL) allowed India to move to wireless communication systems at much lower cost. [22] Both the capital and operational cost were significantly lower than those of any technologies prevalent at that point of time. corDECT enables wireless access solution for telecom networks with integration of both voice and Internet services. [23] He was conferred the Padma Shri in 2002 for his work on Wireless Communication Systems.

His other initiatives like setting up of the Centre for Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) and the Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI) have enabled India to export IPR in telecom.

Innovation in Electric Vehicles

Since 2016, Prof Jhunjhunwala is leading the efforts of bringing EVs in the country. [24] [25] He mentors several startups and groups to develop new batteries and EV models. He aims to make Electric Vehicles affordable. This will reduce India's import bill of oil and promote a greener technology.

He has come up with various innovations such as reducing the size of batteries, battery swapping, using environment friendly zero–effluent recycling of spent Li-ion batteries which have resulted in significant enhancements in energy efficiencies of EVs . [26]

Innovation in Solar Decentralization

Since about 2010, Dr Jhunjhunwala has focused his research on the power problems of India which affect the masses. [27] He developed solar roof-top and DC power-line at home along with the use of DC-powered appliances as an answer to these problems. This innovative technique reduces power consumption. [28]

Awards and honours

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IIT Madras</span> Public engineering institution in India

Indian Institute of Technology Madras is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), IIT Madras is also recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arogyaswami Paulraj</span> Indian-American engineer

Arogyaswami J. Paulraj is an Indian-American electrical engineer, academic. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Elect. Engg. at Stanford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanjay Govind Dhande</span>

Sanjay Govind Dhande is an Indian Mechanical engineer and educationist. He is alumnus of College of engineering Pune. He was Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and was in temporary charge of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior. From the year 2016 to 2020, Professor Dhande was the Chairman, Board of Governors of National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, an Institute established by the Government of India in the year 1963. He was also Chairman, Board of Governors of National Institute of Technology Delhi . Professor Dhande was the founder director of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur. He served as a part-time member of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Also, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) is a nonprofit research society of IIT Madras set up to research potential innovations in wireless technology. The organization is set up with support from Ministry of Communication and IT and the Indian telecom industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U. B. Desai</span>

Uday B. Desai is an Indian academician and the founding director of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. He is a Professor Emeritus in Electrical engineering Chancellor ICFAI Dehradun, Chancellor Anurag University, Hyderabad Honorary Distinguished Professor Plaksha University and a Strategic Consultant for TSDSI. He served as the director of IIT Hyderabad from June 2009 to July 2019, and is credited for taking it to rank among the top 10 engineering colleges in India in the NIRF engineering ranking. He was mentor director of IIT Bhilai from May 2016 to February 2017 and mentor director for IIIT Chittoor 2013–2018.

Timothy Aloysius Gonsalves is an Indian computer scientist and professor. During his academic career, he has been founder/co-founder of several institutions and companies. These include founder of Nilgiri Networks (P) Ltd, co-founder of NMSWorks Software (P) Ltd, co-founder of the TeNeT Group and RTBI at IIT Madras, and IIT Mandi Catalyst. Most notably, he was the founding Director of IIT Mandi in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh from Jan. 2010 to Jun. 2020. He is currently Professor Emeritus (Honorary) at IIT Mandi. His academic interests include education for engineers of the future, computer networks, distributed systems, telecom software and performance evaluation among others.

Bantval Jayant Baliga is an Indian electrical engineer best known for his work in power semiconductor devices, and particularly the invention of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).

V Ramgopal Rao is an Indian academic currently serving as the Group Vice Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani for campuses located in Pilani, Dubai, Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai. He was previously the Director of IIT, Delhi for six years during 2016-2021.

Suman Chakraborty is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Sir J. C. Bose National Fellow. He has been the first in the history of IIT Kharagpur to be bestowed by the National Award for Teachers in the Higher Education Category by the honourable President of India. He is also Institute Chair Professor Awardee of 2023. He has served as the Dean, Research and Development, Associate Dean and the Head of the School of Medical Science and Technology of the Institute. He has also been National Academy of Engineering Chair Professor. He joined the Institute in 2002 as Assistant Professor and has been a Full Professor since 2008.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi is an Indian academic who served as the director of Indian Institute of Technology Madras from 2011 to 2022. He succeeded M. S. Ananth and was succeeded by Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan.

Debatosh Guha is an Indian researcher and educator. He is a Professor at the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics at the Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta. He is an Adjunct faculty at the National Institute of Technology Jaipur and had also served Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur as HAL Chair Professor for a period during 2015-2016.

Suhash Chandra Dutta Roy is an Indian electrical engineer and a former professor and head of the department of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his studies on analog and digital signal processing and is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, Systems Society of India and Acoustical Society of India, The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 1981.

Surendra Prasad is an Indian communications engineer, a former director and an Usha chair professor of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is also an emeritus professor of Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology And Management, a joint venture of IIT Delhi and is known for developing new techniques, algorithms and hardware in signal processing. He is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences, India. as well as the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 1988.

Ranjan Kumar Mallik is an Indian electrical and communications engineer and a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He held the Jai Gupta Chair at IIT Delhi from 2007 to 2012 and the Brigadier Bhopinder Singh Chair from 2012 to 2017. He is known for his researches on multiple-input multi-output systems and is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, and The National Academy of Sciences, India. He is also an elected fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

Yendluri Shanthi Pavan is an Indian electrical engineer and a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is known for his studies on mixed signal VLSI circuits and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is also a fellow of IEEE. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2012.

Bayya Yegnanarayana is an INSA Senior Scientist at International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, Telangana, India. He is an eminent professor and is known for his contributions in Digital Signal Processing, Speech Signal Processing, Artificial Neural Networks and related areas. He has guided about 39 PhD theses, 43 MS theses and 65 MTech projects. He was the General Chair for the international conference, INTERSPEECH 2018, held at Hyderabad. He also holds the positions as Distinguished Professor, IIT Hyderabad and an Adjunct Faculty, IIT Tirupati.

Rakhesh Singh Kshetrimayum, FIET, SMIEEE is an electrical engineer, educator and Professor in the department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

Abhay Karandikar is an Indian educator, engineer, innovator, and administrator best known for his work in the telecommunication sector in India. Currently, he is serving as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India from 1 October 2023 onwards. Previously, he served as the Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur from 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2023. Prior to that, Karandikar held a number of positions, including Dean, Head of the Department of the Electrical Engineering, and Institute Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He was one of the founding members of Telecom Standards Development Society of India and appointed as its first Vice Chairman from 2014 to 2016, and then was appointed its Chairman from 2016 to 2018. Karandikar contributed to conceptualization and establishment of new technical standards work programmes for TSDSI. In 2016, he was awarded with IEEE SA's Standards Medallion for his work to Indian Technology, Policy and Standardization with IEEE guidelines.

Sarit Kumar Das is an Institute professor of the department of mechanical engineering at IIT Madras. He also held the position of Dean at Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He was the Director at IIT Ropar. His research varies from a wide range of Heat transfer applications like nanofluids, biological heat transfer microfluidics and nanoparticle mediated drug delivery in cancer cells. He is an elected fellow of National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI) and Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE).

References

  1. ↑ Ashok, Jhunjhunwala. "Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras" . Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ↑ Lakshmi, Krupa (10 January 2013). "The sky is his limit". The Hindu. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Sridhar, Varadharajan (2011). The Telecom Revolution In India: Technology, Regulation, and Policy. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0198075530.
  4. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A (1999). "Affordable fibre access network for developing countries". International Conference on Integrated Optics and Optical Fiber Communication. 1: 47–49.
  5. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Ramamurthi, B; Gonsalves, T.A. (1998). "The role of technology in telecom expansion in India". IEEE Communications Magazine. 36 (11): 88–94. doi:10.1109/35.733480.
  6. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A (March 2002). "Challenges in Rural Connectivity for India". ASCI Journal of Management. 31.
  7. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A (2003). "Drivers of Telecom in India". IETE Technical Review. 20 (4): 279–287. doi:10.1080/02564602.2003.11417085. S2CID   60528044.
  8. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Sangamitra, R (August 2005). "Rural Connectivity in India". Computer Society of India (CSI) Communications Magazine.
  9. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Rangarajan, J (July 2011). "Connecting the Next Billion: Empowering Rural India". IT Professional. 13 (4): 53–55. doi:10.1109/MITP.2011.58. S2CID   39950725.
  10. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A (28 August 2017). "Electric Vehicles are the future of Transportation". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  11. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Mehta, T (12 July 2019). "Can India make the transition to electric vehicles?". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  12. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Lolla, A; Kaur, P (2016). "Solar-dc Microgrid for Indian Homes: A Transforming Power Scenario". IEEE Electrification Magazine. 4 (2). IEEE: 10–19. doi:10.1109/MELE.2016.2543950. S2CID   28023552.
  13. ↑ Kaur, P; Jain, S; Jhunjhunwala, A (2015). "Solar-DC deployment experience in off-grid and near off-grid homes: Economics, technology and policy analysis". 2015 IEEE First International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM). pp. 26–31. doi:10.1109/ICDCM.2015.7152004. ISBN   978-1-4799-9880-7. S2CID   37218635.
  14. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Kaur, P; Mutagekar, S (December 2018). "Electric Vehicles in India: A Novel Approach to Scale Electrification". IEEE Electrification Magazine. 6 (4): 40–47. doi:10.1109/MELE.2018.2871278. S2CID   54215765.
  15. ↑ "Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  16. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Board of Directors, BIRAC". BIRAC. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  17. 1 2 Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Technical Advisory Committee, SEBI". Securities and Exchange Board of India. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  18. 1 2 "Ashok Jhunjhunwala". The Economic Times. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  19. ↑ National Research Council, Policy and Global Affairs, Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, Committee on Comparative Innovation Policy: Best Practice for the 21st Century (8 September 2009). Understanding Research, Science and Technology Parks: Global Best Practices: Report of a Symposium. National Academies Press. pp. 61–66. ISBN   978-0309145466.{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ↑ Ravindranath, Sushila (6 November 2019). "Working on solutions for 'very' Indian problems". Financial Express.
  21. ↑ "IITM Incubation Cell". Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  22. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A; Jalihal, D (26 March 2015). "Wireless in Local Loop—Some Fundamentals". IETE Journal of Research. 46 (6): 421–433. doi:10.1080/03772063.2000.11416187. S2CID   110576051.
  23. ↑ INpatent 198261,Indian Institute of Technology; Ashok Jhunjhunwala& Bhaskar Ramamurthi,"A LONG RANGE RELAY BASE DECT SYSTEM",published 2005-03-25,issued 2006-05-19
  24. ↑ "Ashok Jhunjhunwala – India is ready for the EV revolution. Are you?". PlugInIndia. 11 November 2017.
  25. ↑ INapplication 198261,Indian Institute of Technology; Ashok Jhunjhunwala& Bhaskar Ramamurthiet al.,"A method and system for maximizing power efficiency in a solar DC system",published 2016-07-01
  26. ↑ "IIT Madras testing prototype of swappable electric battery". The Statesman. 27 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, A (31 January 2017). "Innovative Direct-Current Microgrids to Solve India's Power Woes". IEEE Spectrum.
  28. ↑ INpatent,Indian Institute of Technology; Ashok Jhunjhunwala& Bhaskar Ramamurthiet al.,"PROVIDING UNINTERRUPTED POWER SUPPLY TO CONSUMERS",published 2015-09-04
  29. ↑ "Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Research Award Awardees List" . Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  30. ↑ "Dr. A. Jhunjhunwala, Distinguished Alumnus Awardees 2000". Dean, Resources and Alumni, IIT Kanpur. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  31. ↑ "Indian Science Congress 2000 – A Report" (PDF). Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research. 59: 487–505.
  32. ↑ "COPPER EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION". International Copper Association India. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  33. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "UGC- Hari Om Ashram Trust Awards" . Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  34. ↑ "Details of the IETE Awards" . Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  35. ↑ "INSA Awards Recipients" . Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  36. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok (6 January 2016). "Bernard Lown Humanitarian Awardees List" . Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  37. ↑ "Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala". National Academy of Engineering, USA. 7 February 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  38. ↑ "Ashok Jhunjhunwala Biography IITM" . Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  39. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "IEEE Fellows Directory" . Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  40. ↑ "IEEE Fellows 2009 | IEEE Communications Society".
  41. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Fellows, Indian Academy of Science".
  42. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Fellow, Indian National Science Academy" . Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  43. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences". Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  44. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering" . Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  45. ↑ Jhunjhunwala, Ashok. "Fellow, WWRF" . Retrieved 23 April 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.