The True Technologist

Like many other successful Indians in the US, he could have taken a great

idea, and built a product around it. He could have sought (and would have easily

got) venture funding to create a start-up. He could have become a serial

entrepreneur. He could have turned an angel investor. He could have…….

But Arun Netravali did not.

Instead,

the chief scientist at Lucent Technologies chose to remain close to research,

looking after the mammoth research organization, the Mecca of technology

research to some, Bell Laboratories. And that, despite "missing my personal

research"–as he once confessed in an interview with Voice&Data.

A true example of a modern day jnana yogi–the Vedantic term for one who

follows the path of knowledge–Dr Netravali believes in sharing of knowledge,

as opposed to the phrase that is in vogue today–creation of wealth. He

passionately believes in selfless hard work, something he says, his Indian

upbringing taught him. That is why he considers Lata Mangeshkar his mentor,

though he has never worked with her. It is her work and contribution, albeit in

a totally different field, that inspires this great scientist.

An IIT Bombay Alumni, Dr Netravali is an authority on HDTV, has made

significant contributions to the field of video compression through his personal

research, has won many awards and honors including US National Medal of

Technology as well as Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honor.

Dr Netravali passionately believes that communication will be ubiquitous, the

Internet will never get centralized, and will soon become a Hi-IQNet with a lot

more intelligence. "It is not necessary that everything should converge to

become one, he says, adding "convergence to me is how much sharing you

do." n