At the beginning of his career at IIT Madras, Prof.Jhunjhunwala was Head of Guidance and Counseling Unit (1983-85) and virtually created this organisation on. In 1985 he became Head of Optical Communication Lab and in 1987 of Telematics Lab in the Electrical Engineering Department. In late 80's he took charge of communication facilities at IITM and took the lead in providing telephones to all faculty at homes and offices. For the last six years, he has been the head of TeNeT Group of IIT Madras and has built the group to have nine faculty member, about 120 staff and a number of associated industries together, the research group's strength today is 400 and Dr.Jhunjhunwala provided the overall leadership. He was Head of Electrical Engineering Department at IIT Madras from 1998 to 2001 and has taken an initiative to make it one of the most cohesive department of the institute.

As a part of Dr. Jhunjhunwala's administrative responsibilities, he took an initiative with

• Analog devices - USA and instituted a chair in the Electrical Engineering Department of IITM in the name of "Analog Devices Chair" for $140,000.
• Mr. Thomas Alexander, IITM alumns in the area of "Telecommunications and Computer Networking" in the name of "N.T. Alexander" for $1,25,000.