Seamless telecommunications has been both a cause and an effect
of what Tom Friedman calls the flattening of the world. In the flat world,
geographical boundaries are irrelevant; political boundaries are meaningless.
We Indians, surprising as it may sound, have been very
comfortable with this idea for long. India itself has been a political country
for just about a few hundred years, from the time the British ruled it as a
single nation; before that it was a collection of small little kingdoms. But
even then, citizes of these kingdoms had no doubts whatsoever that they belonged
to Bharat. What was Bharat? It was an idea.
India has always been an idea first. When we started
conceptualizing the 150th issue, we did not want to dilute our Indianness of
which we are so proud; but we never wanted to confine that Indiannness it to a
set of boundaries. So we decided to focus on people-people who have made
contributions to telecom not just within the political boundaries of India but
anywhere in the world. For Indians, Vasudha (the earth) is, anyway, one kutumb
(family).
These personalities belong to various sections of the industry,
society, and government. They range from technologists to bureaucrats to
politicians.
Together, they will tell you a story of telecom-some of it unveiling in New
Delhi; some in New Jersey; some in Bangalore; and some in Boston. Happy Reading!
Ajai
Chowdhry
Heralded the computer culture in India
AK
Sinha
Launched BSNL's broadband service
Anil
D Ambani
Led RCoVL's march to the market
APJ
Abdul Kalam
Advocate of rural connectivity
Arun
Netravali, (NRI)
Pioneered video compression
technology
Arun
Sarin
The face of Vodafone
Arun
Sobti
Innovated with 3G and broadband
Arvind
Virmani
Pushed for de-licensing in telecom
sector
Ashraf
M Dahod
Pioneer of mobile wireless
infrastructure
Asim
Ghosh
A strategic planner
Atal
Behari Vajpayee
Presided over watershed years of
Indian telecom
AV
Gokak
Freeing tariff barriers
BA
Majmudar
Established CDMA in India
Babu
Mandava
Creator of SIMD/VLIW DSP processors
BD
Khurana
The brain behind Reliance's
telecom venture
Beni
Prasad Verma
Wiring rural India
Bharat
T Doshi
Sustained contributions to networking
technologies
Bimal
Jalan
Paved the way for private ISPs in
India
BK
Zutshi
Fought for QoS
BV
Jagadeesh
Hosting hero
BV
Naidu
Started India's first email
network
C
Sivasankaran
India's first DSL
ISP
Chandrababu
Naidu
Used communications for governance
Dayakar
Puskoor
Wireless warrior
Dayanidhi
Maran
Made India a telecom manufacturing
hub
Debasis
Mitra
Networking Guru
Dev
Gupta
Transforming cable
TV networks
Devendra
Kumar Sangal
Modernized India's switching
network
Dr
Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj
The father of MIMO Smart Antennas
Dr
DPS Seth
Pioneered the concept of unified
licensing
Dr
Govind P Agrawal
Fiber-optics Guru
Dr
Gururaj Deshpande
Influential technology
entrepreneur and visionary
Dr
Hemant Kanakia
Designed packet and cell switching
architectures
Dr
Inderpal Singh Mumick
The billing specialist
Dr
Narinder Singh Kapany
Invented fiber optics
Dr
Pradeep Sindhu
Challenged Cisco's monopoly
Dr
Rakesh Mohan
Championing telecom reforms in India
Dr
Srinidhi Varadarajan
Architect of System X, a supercomputer
Dr
Srinivasan Ramani
Ushered the Internet age in India
Dr
TH Choudhury
Founding chairman of VSNL
Dr
Vijay Bhatkar
Father of India's first supercomputer — PARAM
GB
Meemansi
The unsung hero of telecom
Gian
Dilawari
Led several telecom MNCs
Giridhar
Gomango
The honest and accessible telecom minister
GS
Grover
Implemented the first PSDN network
Harshvardhan
Singh
The unsung hero of TRAI
HK
Desai
Major influence on storage networking
Jagdeep
Shah
Superman with semiconductors
Jagdeep
Singh
Took on Intel
Jagdish
N Sheth
Telecom thinker
Jagjivan
Ram
Envisioned connectivity to villages
Jai
P Bhagat
Statmart in the wireless industry
Jaswant
Singh
Shaped the NTP 1999
Jayshree
Ullal
LANding Cisco in India
Justice
Santosh Hegde
Championed the cause of consumers
Kanwar
Jit Singh
VLSI veteran
KB
Chandrasekhar
Working toward Internet success
Kewal
Khanna
T&M Man for decades
KR
Naik
Customizations for India
Krish
Prabhu
Investing in telecom's success
Krishan
K Sabnani
Launched several innovations in networking
Kumar
Malavalli
Father of FC SAN
Late
Dewang Mehta
Dreamt of making India an IT superpower
Late
Dhirubhai Ambani
Envisioned affordable telecom for the masses
Late
Narasimha Rao
Early liberalizer
Late
Pramod Mahajan
Introduced Internet telephony and CDMA
Late
Rajiv Gandhi
Liberated telecom before liberalization
Late
Vijay K Gupta
Pioneered customer orientation in telecom
Lt
Gen DP Sehgal
Conceptualized and implemented defense networks
Mahendra
Nahata
Pioneer of indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing
Mahesh
Veerina
Made Internet affordable
Mano
Murthy
Pioneered work in layer 2/3 VLAN switching
Manoj
G Tirodkar
Entrepreneur with zeal to excel
Mohan
Gyani
Drove AT&T's wireless business
Mrityunjay
Athreya
The management Guru
Mukesh
Ambani
Like a storm, shook up Indian telecom
Mukesh
Chatter
Invented the scalable switching fabric technology
N
Seshagiri
Liberated telecom policy
NK
Singh
Championed mobility for WLL
Nripendra
Misra
Pioneered the 3G policy
Padmasree
Warrior
Gunning for seamless mobility
Partha
Mitra
Pioneered human-engineered systems
Patrick
Stewart
Overcame the Suez hurdle
PK
Garg
De-licensed the Wi-Fi frequency in India
Prabhat
K Dubey
Launched the world's fastest data switch
Pradip
Baijal
Spearheaded Phase II reforms
Prakash
Agarwal
Semiconductor Guru
Prakash
Bajpai
Created India's first broadband network
Prakash
Panjwani
CDMA Signaling Standard Developer
Prathima
Agrawal
Invented multiprocessor architecture, MARS
Prithipal
Singh
Making the Behemoth Fly
Prof
Ashok Jhunjhunwala
Developed corDECT
PS
Saran
Opened gateway of Opportunities
R
Ramaraj
India's first private ISP
Raj
Parekh
Improving Networks
Raj
Singh
Behind the scenes entrepreneur
Rajat
Kathuria
Pioneered TRAI's tariff formulation exercise
Rajeev
Chandashekhar
The Southern raja
Rajiv
Kumar
An authority on Bluetooth
Rajiv
Mehrotra
Multipronged strategist
Ram
Vilas Paswan
Connected India with Bharat
Raman
Roy
Catalyzed high-quality telecom services
Ramchand
Kondapalli
Modernized BSNL's billing strategy
Ratan
Tata
Telecom with global ambition
Ravi
Sethi
Co-authored Dragon Book
Ravindra
Nath Goyal
Set up the National Telecom Museum
RL
Dube
Launched PCOs in India
RN
Agarwal
Contributed to spectrum management
Rohit
Sharma
Focused on cross-disciplinary innovations in
networking
Romulus
Pereira
Pioneered development of service-enabling technologies
Roshan
Lal Sharma
Made the first commercial modem
RRN
Prasad
Liberator of Internet in India
RSP
Sinha
Instilled competitive spirit in the PSU
S
Rajagopalan
Rehauled and modernized MTNL
Sabeer
Bhatia
The poster boy of Internet
Sam
Pitroda
Powered India's PCO revolution
Sanjeev
Aga
Launched Idea Cellular
Sanjiv
Ahuja
Led IBM's entry to telecom management
Santanu
Das
Developed VLSI-based telephone switching systems
SC
Khanna
CDMA's own man in India
SD
Saxena
Drove the development of infrastructure
Shashi
Ullal
The VSAT man
Shib
Chandra Nandy
Prepared the ground
Shyamal
Ghosh
Financed rural telephony
Simon
Beresford Wylie
Started India's first mobile services
Sir
William Brooke O'Shaughnessy
Ushered telegraphy into India
SM
Agarwal
Developed the Hindi teleprinter
SS
Sodhi
Released NTP 1999
Subhas
Chandra
Revolutionized broadcasting in India
Sudhirendra
Kulkarni
Connected the PM with the industry
Suhas
Patil
The erudite technopreneur of Silicon Valley
Sukhram
Opened telecom to private sector
Sunil
Bharti Mittal
Mobile warrior
Suraj
Mal Agarwal
Developed the Hindi teleprinter
Sushma
Swaraj
Oversaw the bidding of telecom licenses
TV
Ramachandran
A fighter for the cellular cause
Venkatesh
Krishnaswamy
Advanced IP telephony
Vijay
Madan
Revived C-DOT
Vinay
L Deshpande
Co-developer of the Simputer
Vinod
Dham
Created Pentium and K6 processors
Vinod
Khosla
Identified the optical networking opportunity
Vinod
Vaish
Steered the corporatizing of DoT
Vishwani
D Agrawal
An authority on electronic testing
VP
Sinha
BSNL's Marketing Genius
Werner
von Siemens
Pionered telegraphy in India
William
Kennard
FCC's chairman and TRAI's friend
YK
Pandey
An architect of C-DOT switching systems
YL
Aggarwal
The man who built India's first Telecom TNC and looked
beyond Indian borders
Contributors:
Ibrahim Ahmad, Shyamanuja Das, Pravin Prashant, Sudesh Prasad, Rahul Gupta,
Malovika Roy, Alok Singh, Sonia Sharma, Gyan Ranjan Swain
vadmail@cybermedia.co.in