Date of Birth June 22, 1953

(h) Development Initiatives

As a natural outflow of his research interest in the area of communication systems and computer networks, Dr.Jhunjhunwala has built one of the finest groups called Telecommunications and Computer Networks (TeNeT) in the country developing full-fledged products for the Indian as well as International markets. Over the last few years, the system development efforts in his laboratory have snowballed, resulting in major technology developments. Currently he works with eight other faculty members and 400 engineers and technicians, developing low-cost telecom and network products for India and other developing countries. They have developed corDECT Wireless in Local Loop, which provides 35/70 Kbps Internet and simultaneous voice conversation at a cost much lower than that of any other WLL product. Digital Internet Access Switches (DIAS) is a DSL on copper product providing 144 Kbps or 2 Mbps Internet plus simultaneous voice. optiMA Fibre in the Loop system provides SDH fibre back-haul and lowest cost telephony. The CygNet Network Management System enables management of telecom as well as Internet network using a tiered approach. The products have been developed in partnership with companies like Midas Communications, Banyan Networks, Nilgiri Networks and Vembu Systems. These companies were formed by alumnus of IITM and incubated in TeNeT Lab at IITM.

Dr.Jhunjhunwala today is leading a movement to make India a premier design house for telecom and IT products with his vision to enable India to have 200 million telecom and Internet connections in India. He has helped IIT incubate a number of Telecom and IT companies. He has led the development of products, which are amongst the best in the world and specially suitable for developing countries. He has contributed at policy level to enable India to expand its telecom network. He has worked with the key telecom and network Industry leaders in putting forward a vision that developing countries need lower-cost affordable technologies. He has worked to take telecom and Internet to small towns and rural areas in India. The Wireless Local Loop system developed in his lab today is being deployed in Argentina, Brazil, Tunisia, Madagascar, Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, Yemen, Fiji and Iran besides India.