Pathbreaker Award 2003

Inside the IIT Madras campus, spread across a thou-sand acres, one needs to
travel a bit to reach a depart ment. Don’t be surprised if you see quite
a bit of wildlife en route–ranging from rare spotted deer to an occasional
macaw.

Camouflaged amid these tranquil environs is the department of electrical
engineering that has gained worldwide recognition now, thanks to its head who
has pioneered a communication revolution of sorts. Meet Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala,
the professor whose thoughts have been inspiring his students for decades.

Jhunjhunwala wears many hats–professor, department of electrical
engineering and head TeNet Lab IIT, Chennai; the brain behind corDECT;
technology evangelist; speaker; and writer... the list goes on. Despite the
laurels and accolades, Dr Jhunjhunwala epitomizes what simplicity is and remains
truly down to earth. He prefers chappals instead of shoes, does not wear branded
outfits, and drives around the city on an old Bajaj Chetak.

In the Beginning

When Jhunjhunwala started his noble mission called TeNet (telecommunications
and computer networks group) years ago, many thought it would flounder. But the
TeNet group, despite a humble origin, defied the critics in time and went on to
become one of the finest research bodies in the country promoting
telecommunication technologies and fostering fledgling startup initiatives in
this space. One of the biggest contributions of Dr Jhunjhunwala and TeNet is the
corDECT technology. For the uninitiated, corDECT is a WLL standard aimed at
providing converged services–voice and data–at an affordable cost to the
masses, irrespective of the location. It simplifies last-mile connectivity and
enables wireless remote access. When the idea was conceived nearly a decade ago,
it looked rosy enough on paper, but turning it into reality was indeed a
daunting task.

In the very beginning, TeNet members were faced with major challenges.
Arriving at an affordable cost-effective new telephone line was the first
impediment. During the early nineties, the service provider had to incur a cost
of Rs 40,000 for providing a new telephone line to a remote location. But if
TeNet were to offer a technology at this cost, adoption in large numbers was
impossible. One needed to bring the cost factor down by three times and roll out
a technology that could do data and voice concurrently. Overall, one had to
offer everything at a cost of Rs 10,000 per line.

The next question: where to start?

 A technology roll-out needs people, devices, equipments, standards, et
al. Jhunjhunwala invited the IIT alumni and incubated companies. So in 1994,
Jhunjhunwala roped in six former IITians and launched Midas Communications. They
were to develop a communication device that worked 24x7 at a cost of Rs 10,000
per line to the service provider. None of them had prior experience in
developing a converged access product. More importantly, they did not have any
hard cash to fund their initiative. Jhunjhunwala’s optimism finally paid off.
Four companies that believed in TeNet’s vision–Crompton Greaves, Himachal
Futuristic Communications (HFCL), Shyam Telecom, and Electronics Corporation of
India (ECIL) extended Rs 4 crore towards advance licensing fee.

When Jhunjhunwala met Ray Stata, chairman of the US semiconductor major
Analog Devices, he pitched his vision behind corDECT. Stata, highly impressed
with Jhunjhunwala’s forward-looking thoughts, extended his support by
committing the design and supply of chipsets for corDECT.

A Technology Was Born

CorDECT was thus born, countering skeptics and the policy makers who initially
doubted the viability of the technology. This technology has drastically brought
down the cost of putting a new telephone line, and hence is a boon to a
developing geography like India. It gives a subscriber a fixed wireless
connection, providing both a telephone and also a 35—75 kbps Internet
connection, resulting in a low-cost DSL connectivity. The significance of this
technology is that it uses wireless for the last-mile connectivity. Hence, even
the remotest parts can be given connectivity without relying on copper.

The corDECT system was first deployed in rural areas in February 2000 in
which around 65 villages in Kuppam Taluk in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh
were connected to a radius of 25 km. Today, the Kuppam model has become a sort
of reference for the success of corDECT. But despite the deliverables of the
technology, initially the telecom operators were slow or reluctant to deploy
corDECT and provide telephony in rural areas, mainly because they did not see
profits there. But things soon changed as MTNL and BSNL saw the benefits and
started adopting corDECT in a big way. For instance, BSNL has provided more than
six lakh telephone connections using corDECT in rural areas–indeed, an
achievement for TeNet.

But Dr Jhunjhunwala says that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.
His vision and dream is 200 million telephone lines by 2008. Achieving that
dream calls for massive propagation of the technology in rural areas. Yet again,
TeNet came with a brilliant idea–it incubated a company called n-Logue
Communications. The charter of the company was to provide telecom and Internet
connectivity only to the rural areas of the country. Drawing inspiration from
the country’s STD booths and the cable revolution, n-Logue pioneered the
concept of Internet kiosks offering telephone and a range of Net services using
corDECT. Successful implementation of corDECT on the Internet kiosks can now be
seen in remote villages like Dhar and Sikar districts in Madhya Pradesh and
Rajasthan.

Today corDECT has come a long way. It has changed the lifestyle of the
village folk. They are no longer a deprived lot–access to telephone and the
Internet has opened up new opportunities for them and exposed them to the
outside world. The Indian government recognized Dr Jhunjhunwala’s pioneering
efforts and conferred the prestigious Padma Shri award on him. But Jhunjhunwala
hasn’t rested on his laurels.

Jhunjhunwala has been not just a technology visionary, he also had the pulse
of the market, which is why corDECT didn’t have to go through endless pilots
akin to research initiatives. Today, after two decades of teaching and
researching at IIT Madras, Dr Jhunjhunwala has packed a career only few can
muster.

Today, one of Jhunjhunwala’s incubation companies, Midas Communications is
at the threshold of becoming a Rs 250-crore company with its cash register
ringing with orders from across the world. Says Shirish Purohit, director, Midas
Technologies, "We owe it all to Dr Jhunjhunwala. Right from my student days
at IIT Madras, he was an inspiration to me. He was very determined to indigenize
technologies. It is not surprising that his out-of-the-box thinking has brought
in a radical change in the Indian telecom industry."

SHRIKANTH G In Chennai

"Learn from Your Mistakes"

Dr Jhunjhunwala jet sets across the world, presenting papers and evangelizing
on technology. We caught up with him at IIT Madras, just after he returned from
Geneva. Shrugging off his jet lag, he spoke to Dataquest about his mission and
vision in life:

On the evolution of TeNET

We started working in the late 1980s. One of the missing links that was
hampering indigenous technology development was the lack of
institute-industry interactions. It became clear in a while that to foster
technology we needed do develop linkages with the industry. We also needed a
disruptive technology positively impacting millions of people.
Telecommunication was our obvious choice. So we took an in-depth look at the
state of affairs, and concluded that the major deterrent towards adoption of
telephones in the rural areas was the capital expenditure that the service
provider had to shell out in setting up a new line. The cost for deploying a
new line was as high as Rs 40,000. We started off with an aim of bringing
down the cost factor down by three times so that the cost per line would be
around Rs 10,000.

On the challenges faced

For us at TeNet, each step has been a challenge, and a learning
experience. When we said that we were going to bring the cost per line to Rs
10,000, some laughed and mocked at us. Moreover, we had very little
experience in product designing. And our chosen area, telecom, had so many
government regulatory bodies that enforced so many policies at varying
points in time, thereby imposing severe limitations on our research
activities at times. Probably one of the biggest challenges rested in
commercializing the corDECT technology. When we went to DoT and demonstrated
our technology, they were skeptical. In time, we have effectively overcome
the skepticism and the suspicion.

How it started

We at TeNET had a vision, but to make it happen we needed people. We sat
together and made a list consisting of nine former IITians. When we invited
and told them to launch Midas Communications, all nine of them who had
secure jobs, quit and accepted our offer. In fact, they took a salary cut.
It was indeed one my best moments in life to see my students reposing such
confidence and becoming part of my dream.

On the oversights

When we started Midas, we thought we had everything in place. But we
realized in time that technology was not everything. We learned the hard way
that part of success also lay in management, organizational leadership, and
marketing.

On moving forward

Today, we have reached a comfort level. Skepticism about corDECT is
nowhere in sight as the system has been tried and tested not only in India
but also across the world. Our mission today is not restricted to 200
million telephone lines by 2008, but to considerably increase the Internet
penetration and double the GDP in rural areas. To achieve that, we will
continue to focus on technologies and constantly work towards bringing down
the cost per lin

His philosophy in life

Dream, think big and accept mistakes. We do more mistakes in life than
do things right. At TeNet, we did a lot of mistakes, but we accepted them
and corrected them too. This made us grow and see things in the right
perspective. I often tell people that without struggles and challenges, life
is not worthwhile. Life is a struggle, and if you struggle for a cause, it
is no longer a struggle.