Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras.

He received his B. Tech degree from IIT, Kanpur, in 1975, and his MS and Ph D degrees from the University of Maine, USA in 1977 and 1979, respectively. From 1979 to 1981, he was with Washington State University as Assistant Professor. Since 1981, he has been teaching at IIT, Madras.

Prof. Jhunjhunwala heads the Telecommunications and Computer Network (TeNeT) Group, a team of faculty members at IITM, committed towards the development of Education and Telecommunications in India. This group is closely working with industry in the development number of Telecommunications and Computer Network Systems.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala’s vision is to see a totally connected India; as he puts it, “it is seeing 201 Million connections by 2010” and “providing Internet in every village of India”. Steering towards this goal, he leads research in developing low cost technologies, suitable and affordable for developing countries like India. Along with Midas Communications (one of the several companies incubated at IITM), he developed corDECT Wireless in Local Loop technology.

The TeNeT group went on to incubate several other R&D companies including Banyan Networks, Chennai Kavigal and n-Logue Communications to steer this dream forward. These companies work in partnership with TeNeT group to develop world class technologies. Their products include, besides corDECT Wireless in Local Loop system, Fibre Access Network, DSL Systems and several other systems. The group has recently incubated a company, which aims to install and operate telephone and Internet in every village in India.

As a member of several Government bodies, Dr. Jhunjhunwala has contributed at policy level to enable India expand its telecom sector.

He was awardees Padmashri in 2002 by President of India for his distinguished service in Science, Technology and Telecommunications area.