Jhun speaks here...

"Dr. Jhunjhunwala's talk was very enthusiastic,
encouraging for new entrepreneurs. There were around
70 attendees and it was well received by audiences.

Background:
Dr. Jhunjhunwala started his work back in 1991 with a
vision "HOW INDIA COULD BE TRANSFORMED INTO A RESEARCH
POWER HOUSE"

In the analysis phase of vision he asked few questions
to himself and his small group members:

1- What could be basic driving force behind RESEARCH?
Is this individual's ambition or hunger? Is this
government driven? Is this charitable driven or
business community driven?
2- What are the basic necessities of a common
urban/rural Indian?
3- What is lacking in Indian education and research
system?

After long discussions within his team, he arrived at
following conclusions:


1- Business is the best force to drive the research.
He and his team did a tremendous work to find out
followings:
a. What are the fields in which India is doing well?
b. What are the fields in which India is lacking?
c. What are the fields in which western countries are
not doing well?
2- The basic necessities of a common man are
health-care, education and livelihood.

Based upon the above facts he chose telephone system
as a model example for his vision. It took 8 years for
him to get a telephone at his residence when he joined
as a faulty in IITM.

He started the analysis with a simple economics:
How much is the cost to install a telephone? : - 55000
Rs in 90's
How many telephones are there in India? : - 7 million
How much can a common man afford to pay as per month
telephone bill?: 250 Rs.
Where is most part of the cost involved in the current
telephone system? (Cost of telephone instrument, O&M –
operation & maintenance, setting up communication
lines). After analysis of historical data, it was
discovered that most expensive part is in setting up
communication lines.

He approached many business men (Ratan Tata, Mukesh
Ambani and many more) with a proposal to create a
network of 10 million telephones at a nominal cost of
10000 Rs per phone. He and his team invented the
Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology to provide
telephones in urban and rural areas at a very low
cost.

Incubation of Companies:
His TENET group incubated with many companies
N-Louge, Midas, NMSworks, NexGe, CK Technologies,
ISoftTech, Venture East, and many more.


1- Business is the best force to drive the research.
He and his team did a tremendous work to find out
followings:
a. What are the fields in which India is doing well?
b. What are the fields in which India is lacking?
c. What are the fields in which western countries are
not doing well?
2- The basic necessities of a common man are
health-care, education and livelihood.

Based upon the above facts he chose telephone system
as a model example for his vision. It took 8 years for
him to get a telephone at his residence when he joined
as a faulty in IITM.

He started the analysis with a simple economics:
How much is the cost to install a telephone? : - 55000
Rs in 90's
How many telephones are there in India? : - 7 million
How much can a common man afford to pay as per month
telephone bill?: 250 Rs.
Where is most part of the cost involved in the current
telephone system? (Cost of telephone instrument, O&M –
operation & maintenance, setting up communication
lines). After analysis of historical data, it was
discovered that most expensive part is in setting up
communication lines.

He approached many business men (Ratan Tata, Mukesh
Ambani and many more) with a proposal to create a
network of 10 million telephones at a nominal cost of
10000 Rs per phone. He and his team invented the
Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology to provide
telephones in urban and rural areas at a very low
cost.

Incubation of Companies:
His TENET group incubated with many companies
N-Louge, Midas, NMSworks, NexGe, CK Technologies,
ISoftTech, Venture East, and many more.

He is in Board of Directors of these three
institutions.


Research Park:

IITM is in process to create a research park adjacent
to IITM. It will be located between IIT and Tidel
Park. Govt of Tamilnadu has already allocated the land
for this. According to him this new park should be
ready within next 5 years and estimated cost is 150
Crore Rs for first phase. 85% percent of the park
premises will be leased or rented for big firms
whereas 15% will be allocated to startups at
discounted rate. All the companies within the park
will allow IITians to work as part time employee. He
is expecting 10-15% of the employees should join as
part time Masters or research students in IIT.
Main focus will be on IT, Bio, Auto, telecom sector.

He came here to market his vision with following
agenda:
1- To raise 10 Crore Rs from Alumni within next 18
months,
2- Invite new entrepreneurs to start companies in
Research Park.


Comparison between IISc and IIT System:
Many questions came out during the talk about
comparison between IISc and IIT. Does IISc get better
quality of research students than IIT? The answer is
very simple: there is no undergraduate course offered
by IISc and IISc is completely research institute.
IISc has SID cell for industry interaction and project
consultancies.
As it is more towards Science research than
engineering, this may be one reason there is not as
much incubation in IISc as in IITM.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala mentioned a very interesting point
during his talk that 91 - 96 was the golden time for
research as Government of India reduced the IIT
funding, (Then finance minister was Manmohan Singh)
and IIT had to figure out new ways to generate funds.
IIT approached different VCs, business parties, and
faced very uncomfortable questions from industry which
IIT was not used to. It completely changed the
thinking and outlook of IITM system, and eventually
forced IITM to become more accountable for the fund
they were receiving."

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End of Summary

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