Someday in 2006, State Financial institution of India was having considered one of its offsite board conferences. Every director needed to communicate for ten minutes in regards to the ‘way forward for banking’. That was a bit disconcerting for one of many board members — Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a hardcore technologist who taught electrical engineering at IIT Madras. What would he say to knowledgeable bankers about the way forward for banking?
If Jhunjhunwala was nonplussed, it was solely momentarily. As he rose to deal with the board, he determined to method the difficulty from his space of experience. He put one query on the desk: How a lot does it price the financial institution if a buyer needed to withdraw, say, Rs. 1,000, if he (a) walked right into a financial institution department, (b) used an ATM and (c) used his credit score or debit card?
The opposite board members checked out each other and, after a few cellphone calls, received the professor his reply — the prices had been Rs. 70, Rs. 12 and Rs. 2, respectively. The professor smiled. “That,” he instructed the bankers, “is the way forward for banking.” Give credit score or debit playing cards to all prospects, he mentioned. These had been the times when the nation was on the cusp of a plastic cash growth. Some raised counter questions: Bank cards are inherently dangerous, and debit playing cards might be misused.
The midas contact
Prof Jhunjhunwala’s energy lay in telecommunications. Beforehand, he had invented wi-fi in native loop and began an organization, Midas Applied sciences, to make landlines low-cost and ubiquitous. Midas Applied sciences was to later become the seed of what went on to turn into one of many best telecom expertise corporations on the planet, Tejas Networks.
Jhunjhunwala, a telecom wonk, supplied the bankers a prepared resolution to their well-founded threat perceptions of credit score and debit playing cards. He mentioned, “Why can’t we ship an SMS to the client after each transaction?”
That was an fascinating proposition however the bankers had been nonetheless uncertain. How can we ship a message as quickly because the transaction is completed, virtually in actual time, they puzzled. “Go away that to me,” mentioned Jhunjhunwala.
Within the days to come back, the concept advanced into one thing that has turn into an integral and indispensable a part of our on a regular basis life — one time password.
Prof Jhunjhunwala — of Rajasthani ancestral origin, Bihari by start and a Tamilian by domicile (he’s married to a Tamilian) and the recipient of businessline’s Iconic Changemaker award for 2024 — has touched the lives of tens of millions of individuals in additional methods than one.
In truth, the ever-present UPI system that India has turn into recognized for has its origins in Jhunjhunwala’s mind. It was he who, again in 2007, puzzled aloud why ‘mobile-to-mobile’ cost couldn’t be made potential. To offer the sprog a jumpstart, a Cellular Cost Discussion board of India was began in 2007, of which Jhunjhunwala was the chairman for a number of years.
Jhunjhunwala’s concepts had been all approach forward of their occasions. Making an attempt one thing seemingly not possible takes conviction within the thought and in oneself. He attributes his possession of this conviction to a seminal piece of knowledge handed right down to him in 1970, when he was a scholar at IIT Kanpur, by a sure elder from Bihar.
Hanuman Prasad Khaitan, who lived in village Lakhisarai in Bihar, was a Gandhian who had participated within the battle for Independence. After Gandhiji handed away, Khaitan had turn into an ardent follower of Vinobha Bhave, who began the ‘Bhoodan’ (land donation) motion in 1951.
When Nehru introduced within the mid-Fifties the establishing of 5, well-funded Indian Institutes of Expertise, many elders, together with Khaitan, had been aghast — as a result of the entire thought behind the Independence motion was to create an egalitarian society. IITs, perceived to be elitist, flew within the face of such an thought. Bhave satisfied his followers to debate amongst themselves after which take a stand. They did, and concluded that Nehru was, in spite of everything, proper. Each society wanted main lights. However the village elders didn’t lose sight of the social function behind the IITs.
Someday in 1970, Khaitan — who, years later, could be the primary to tell Jhunjhunwala of his choice for the celebrated Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award — known as his grandson over and instructed him, “Ashok, I’m very completely happy that you’ve got into IIT Kanpur. You might be privileged. However bear in mind this — an IIT graduate ought to by no means ask any query besides ‘what can I do?’ If one thing needed to be achieved within the pursuits of society, it simply needed to be achieved.” Jhunjhunwala totally internalised the recommendation.
And the primary time the professor requested himself the query ‘what can I do’ was in 1981, quickly after his return from the US, the place he had simply accomplished his doctorate from the College of Maine and a tenure as Assistant Professor on the Washington State College.
From the spacious balcony of his thirteenth ground flat that affords a panoramic view of the colorful Adyar-Besant Nagar skyline on one aspect and the blue sash of the Bay of Bengal on the opposite, you’ll be able to see one other excellent creation of Jhunjhunwala, one that’s extra bodily — the IIT Madras Analysis Park, a home for R&D centres and an incubation centre that has spawned over 300 start-ups.
The luxurious however sparsely furnished flat doesn’t belong to Jhunjhunwala — it’s owned by a former scholar of his, now an industrialist. When the professor retired at 70 final 12 months and wanted to maneuver out of the IITM campus, the industrialist insisted that the professor take his flat as a result of “you’re like my father”. Digging his heels in, Jhunjhunwala satisfied the industrialist to simply accept hire.
Sense of nostalgia
Thank windfall for that as a result of in any other case the professor would have shifted from the idyllic and sylvan setting of the IIT campus into the noise and bustle of town. The thirteenth ground flat is enveloped in peace and quiet, offering a meditative atmosphere acceptable for the septuagenarian who’s deeply into strolling, yoga and meditation.
Sitting in that breezy balcony for a chat with businessline , the professor, who counts Ray Stata, co-founder of Analog Gadgets, and Dr Anil Kakodkar, amongst his mentors, lets his recollections wander over these years, and one might discern a way of nostalgia in addition to pained resignation. The golden mild of the setting solar putting the again of his head he reminisced in regards to the early days.
“I used to be settling down in IIT Madras and had simply received married in 1983,” he recollects, adjusting his dhoti to the sturdy breeze from the Bay of Bengal. As if on cue, Bhavani, his spouse, arrives with a tray of tea and snacks. “ Idhar rakh do ,” the professor tells his spouse, pointing to a stool — they communicate Hindi at dwelling, principally. Bhavani, a retired official of Indian Abroad Financial institution, locations the tray on the stool and recedes to the background, because the professor resumes his reminiscences.
Within the early Eighties, it might price Rs. 40,000 to have a phone put in and a typical month-to-month invoice could be Rs. 1,200. Jhunjhunwala puzzled what it might take to slash the capital price to a fourth and the month-to-month invoice to Rs. 250. The professor examined the three main elements of the telecom community — the spine community, the trade and the native loop, the place a pair of copper wires come from the trade into each dwelling with a phone. He realised that the price of the spine community would come down with the appearance of optic fibre. As for the trade, Sam Pitroda had simply arrange C-DOT with trendy switching expertise and the prices had been falling. However the price of the native loop was going up as a result of the price of copper and the price of set up had been each rising. The reply was to go wi-fi for the native loop. Many IIT alumni and two colleagues — Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi and Prof Timothy Gonsalves (who later grew to become Administrators of IIT Madras and Mandi, respectively) — joined fingers with Jhunjhunwala. Midas Applied sciences was born.
Within the regular course of issues, Midas would have turn into a telecom large, however it solely created enemies in excessive locations who did every little thing to crush it, like snatching away the spectrum allotted to it — although it’s one other matter that the core crew of Midas, at Jhunjhunwala’s occasion, shaped Tejas Networks, which is in the present day considered one of world’s six telecom corporations able to producing 5G gear. Midas didn’t take off regardless of having assist from folks like Prof PV Indiresan (former IIT M director, who spoke vociferously and emotionally at a pre-budget assembly known as by then finance minister Yashwant Sinha, after which fainted), MGK Menon, Prof Yashpal, and former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal. “These had been the worst years of my life,” says Jhunjhunwala. Indiresan collapsing on the assembly created fairly a stir, bringing the Midas situation to the eye of LK Advani. However none of those males in excessive locations might save the corporate.
Midas did arrange WLL methods in a number of cities and villages — this author remembers visiting considered one of them in 2004 — however was achieved in by the system. “5 years of inactivity was an excessive amount of of a blow for Midas,” he says. A cheerful coda to the story was the professor getting the Padma Shri award for his WLL work.
At the same time as he was wrestling for Midas, Jhunjhunwala was engaged on one other dream — to arrange a analysis and incubation centre. Conceived in 2008 and constructed two years later, with zestful assist of the then Director, MS Ananth and others, the IIT Madras Analysis Park and its subsidiary, IIT Madras Incubation Cell, popped as much as turn into the most effective recognised landmark on Chennai’s well-known ‘IT hall’. The IIT M Analysis Park is a novel mannequin, constructed out of alumni donations and financial institution borrowings and (intentionally) zero monetary assist from IIT Madras. The company R&D centres that hire house on the park and the start-ups incubated there are mentored by IIT professors. The Analysis Park is a Part 8 (not for revenue) firm however it makes a good-looking surplus from its rental revenue, which is ploughed again into enlargement. And the 300-plus start-ups that had been born there in the present day boast of a cumulative turnover of Rs. 40,000 crore ($5 billion). However Jhunjhunwala is, nicely, not totally glad. He needs to boost the variety of incubatees to 1,000 by 2030 — from about 45 a 12 months in the present day.
Illustrious profession
Midas, cell banking and IITM Analysis Park are however a couple of highlights of Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala’s illustrious profession — however neither is the checklist exhaustive neither is the person exhausted. He has had a hand in lots of, many issues that now we have come to take as a right in the present day. For instance, his efforts led to low-cost ATM machines, bringing down the price from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 75,000 — with out which it’s tough to see ATMs commonplace. He has tomes of labor to his credit score in DC-powered family electrical home equipment that may take feed straight from a rooftop photo voltaic plant. At this time, he’s neck-deep in electrical autos and their parts, equivalent to batteries and motors. The professor is busy beginning a brand new firm, which might be one thing massive, however “await particulars”. Because the crimson solar units behind the imposing towers of the IIT M Analysis Park, you’ll be able to guess your final buck that when it rises once more within the Bay, Prof Jhunjhunwala will provide you with one thing new.