Professor and Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, India, Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala received his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1975. He has been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award and S N Mitra Memorial Award to count a few. He has played a pioneering role in developing telecom and Internet technologies with a vision that India needs to and can have a hundred million telephone lines and connections. He has shown that world class technology development can be done in IITs and Indian industries are willing to fund such a venture.

Dr Jhunjhunwala's work has provided a vision to young scientists and technologists in the country. He is an academician who has established an almost personal research and development centre at IIT Madras,

with dozens of engineers working with him on many sponsored projects from industries simultaneously.

He has developed Wireless Local Loop technology in India, which is now approved by the DoT and the chipset is brought out by Analog Devices Inc, USA. He has also nurtured two hi-tech industries based on these technologies.Today, Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala talks about "Affordable Telecom and IT solutions" for developing countries. According to him, developing countries require a different telecom technologies to enable a significant number of people to enjoy its benefit. He has taken a lead in developing a Total Access Soluton consisting of Wireless Access System, Fibre Access System and Direct Internet Access System, which is poised to make a significant difference in India. India can truly look towards obtaining 100 millionm telephones and Internet connections in the next decade.