|
 |
 |
Kunnath Puthiyaveetil Padmanabhan Nambiar, M.Sc. (Lond), D.I.C. (Lond), F.I.E.E. (Lond), Senior Life Member, .I.E.E.E (U.S.A.), C. Engg. (Lond.) - Distinguished Fellow of I.E.T.E. and F.I.E. (Ind.) |
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| The Visionary | ||||||||||||
| When on 15th April, 1929 a child was born in Kalliasseri village, Kannur
District, Malabar, the then Madras Presidency, none knew that this
toddler would grow up and one day play a major role in the
transformation of electronics in India. His were humble beginnings. KPP Nambiar would walk 8kms each day from his village to the High School in Thaliparamba. This graduate in Physics from the University of Madras found himself in London in 1951 for higher studies in the field of electronics. In October 1954, he joined The Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. He trained himself in Transistors and Semi-conductors at a time, "when nobody was interested in this area", he says. In March 1963 KPP Nambiar returned to India under a Scientist pool scheme initiated by Late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to bring back talented Indians working abroad. As a Scientist Pool Officer under the C.S.I.R he taught modern semiconductor electronics in the Electrical Engineering Dept. of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi till January 1964. Scientist Pool was at that time just introduced by the Govt. of India under the initiative of the Prime Minister Sri Jawaharlal Nehru, to attract Indian Scientists and Technologists abroad, back to India and provide them certain facilities till they settled down. CSIR had offered him this facility while in England in 1962. From January 1964 to May 31, 1967 he was with Philips India Ltd., in the Management cadre.For a brief period from March 1968 to August 1969 Mr Nambiar was Jt. Head of the Piezo Electric Crystal Division of Bharat Electronics Ltd., Bangalore, where he set up the first communication crystals factory in India. In June '67 Mr Nambiar set up the first applied Electronic Research and Development Centre for industrial electronics in the country under the umbrella of the Tata Electric Companies, Bombay and made it into an important Institution during 6 years he was with the Centre. Concurrently from October '67 to February '69 he was also the General Manager of National Radio & Electronics Co. Ltd ., (NELCO), Bombay, where he introduced number of new products with the industrial applications such as speed control of AC and DC Motors, Static Inverters and Converters, Calculators, Electronic Clocks and Display Systems and several Digital Electronic Systems for industrial applications for the first time in the country. Silicon transistor Radios were introduced for the first time in the country in 1968 by NELCO during this period. In June 1973 Mr Nambiar joined Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KELTRON) as its first Chairman and Managing Director and its first employee. KELTRON, the brand name Mr Nambiar gave to the company, was the first autonomous Corporation in the State sector in India and this example was emulated by several state Governments in the country. As Chairman and Managing Director from June 1973 to September 1983 and Executive Chairman from September 1983 to February,1985. Mr Nambiar introduced for the first time in India the concept of village women's co-operative / women's societies for manufacture of electronic assembly oriented products and implemented several schemes in different parts of Kerala thereby taking industries to the villages of Kerala. All KELTRON's medium and large scale manufacturing units are also situated all over the state in rural areas, directly and indirectly employing several thousand people. The concept of women's co-operatives in villages was emulated by various State Governments like Punjab, Bihar, Manipur, Pondicheery and Uttar Pradesh. KELTRON also trained a number of unskilled girls/boys into skilled electronic equipment assembly operators enabling them to work in Women's Co-operatives and SSI units in Ranchi, Pondicherry and Imphal in 1981-82 period and in Lakshadeeps in 1988. The total sales turnover of KELTRON rose from Rs.95 lakhs from 1974 - 75 to Rs.70 crores in 1984-85 and Rs.125 crores in 1989-90. With the catalytic promotional role of KELTRON, Kerala's electronic output rose from Rs.2.5 crores in 1973 to Rs.250 crores in 1989-90. Keeping in view the need for indigenous generation of technology in electronics Mr Nambiar launched the Electronics Research and Development Centre (ER & DC) as an autonomous society at Trivandrum in 1974 which was the first of its kind in State sector for application oriented electronic research and development. He guided this centre as its Chairman towards becoming a centre for excellence in applied electronics and control and instrumentation. The Centre was formally inaugurated on 10th November 1980 by the then Prime Minister of India, Smt Indira Gandhi. The ER & DC was taken over by the Department of Electronics, Govt. of India in April 1988 and developed into a national centre for excellence in Applied Electronics. Mr Nambiar was the Chairman of the Governing Council for the 2nd time till 1995. From Feb 1985 till Jan '87 Mr. Nambiar was Chairman & Managing Director of Indian Telephone Industries Limited, the largest Public Sector Company in Telecommunication in India. During this period ITI also took major steps in the horizontal transfer of technology to several State government undertakings and setting up of joint venture in different parts of the country. In 1986 Mr Nambiar evolved a new concept of consortium of ancillary industries and implemented it by mobilising all the 41 ancillary industries of Indian Telephone Industries in Bangalore to form a consortium company to manufacture plan 103 telephone instruments with a turnover of more than Rs.20 crores. This project was appreciated by the various ministries of the Government of India and representatives of Small Scale Industries as an example of small scale industries joining together to undertake large scale projects. During this period Mr Nambiar expanded all the units of ITI in the country. The Palaghat unit of ITI was expanded from a Rs.2.5 crores turnover company into a Rs.150 crore unit by the induction of new technology and investments. He retired from Indian Government service in 1989 and served as Honorary Special Advisor to the Government of Kerala. That's when the blue print for Technopark was first drawn up. He knew which way the world was heading. He'd been part of that drift for years and had seen dramatic increases taking place in technology. And he knew his onions in technology. Operating out of a small room in the Secretariat, KPP Nambiar and his small group had a job on hand. To build a world-class infrastructure, meeting global standards. "I've seen major technology parks across the world, "says KPP Nambiar, when we spoke to him over the phone. He was in Calicut, recuperating, having suffered a stroke recently. But despite this setback, the Founder of Technopark sounded ever enthusiastic and reminiscences, "It was very clear to me that the Technopark had to be a most modern facility." And so it came to be. On March 31st, 1991 the foundation stone was laid and as one enters the Park Centre, the main building and from where Technopark is administered, the foundation stone on the left stands testimony to KPP Nambiar's vision and creation. Mr. Nambiar has been the Chairman of Namtech group in Bangalore , since April 1989. In 1992-93 he implemented a 12 crore project for the manufacture of Fail Safe Gas Discharge Tubes used as Surge Arresters in Electronic and Telecommunication equipment under Namtech Electronic Devices Ltd. (NEDL) in Electronics City, Bangalore. Mr. Nambiar also implemented manufacture of strategic products in the field of electronic components such as quartz crystals, crystal oscillators, light emitting diodes (LED's), LED Displays. NEDL which had a turn over of Rs. 26 crores during the financial year 2001-2002 has been making profit from the 1st year of production in 1992. In February 1995 Mr. Nambiar launched a Rs.1500 crore project to generate 513 MW of Power under the name of Kannur Power Projects (P) Limited in his native Panchayat of Kalliasseri in Kannur District in North Kerala. The project is the lowest cost project in India and has received all clearances from the State and Central Governments and other statutory bodies. The Techno-economic clearance from the Central Electricity Authority was received on 16.02.2000 and is still working towards the implementation of this prestigious project which will transform the power and the industrial scenario of the Malabar region of Kerala. Mr Nambiar is Chairman, Board of Governors & Management Society, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India since May 1997and Chairman, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Government of Kerala since May 2000. In 1996 Mr Nambiar promoted a joint venture company Bowthorpe Thermometrics India (P) Ltd., with Bowthorpe of UK and Namtech Consultants (P) Ltd to manufacture Thermisters (a temperature dependent Resistor), a vital component in Electronics and Telecom equipment design and as a temperature censor in air-conditioning, automobile and other industrial applications. Within 4 years this company achieved a turnover of 28 crores by the year 2001 and has targeted to reach a turnover of Rs.54 crores by 2002 through export to Europe and USA. Bowthorpe transferred its ownership to GE since October 2001. Mr. Nambiar was Honorary Special Advisor to Govt. of Kerala on Industries from April 1989 to January 1991. During this period he had taken several initiatives for the industrial development of Kerala. Mr Nambiar got Mr Ratan Tata the Chairman of Tata Industries to visit Kerala in 1990 and as a result of discussions with Govt. of Kerala, Tatas agreed to invest in certain areas. This resulted in formation of Taj Hotels & Resorts, Kerala (Rs.105 crores), Tata Ceramics (Kerala) Ltd., (Rs. 50 crores) etc. In 1990 he initiated the establishment of India's first Electronic Technology Park (TECHNOPARK) in Trivandrum to provide infrastructural support required to set up high technology electronic units in the State. Mr. Nambiar was the first Chairman of its implementation Board appointed by the Govt. of Kerala. Technopark today houses more than fifty companies in I.T Sector with over 5000 employees mostly engineers. Mr. Nambiar was Chairman of the Research Council of Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) (CSIR), Pilani during the period 1988 to 1991.From April 1988 till February 1995 Mr. Nambiar again became the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Electronics Research and Development Centre (ER & DC) which was by then taken over by the Department of Electronics, Govt. of India. Mr. Nambiar was the founder Chairman of the ER & DC since 1974, when the Centre was first established under the Science & Technology Plan of the Kerala Govt. till February 1985 when he became the Chairman & Managing Director of ITI Limited. As Secretary to the Govt. of India, Department of Electronics (now Ministry of IT) from 1st January 1987 to 31st December 1988, Mr. Nambiar initiated and impleme nted several new policy initiatives in Research and Development, manufacturing and application of electronics throughout the country and provided a major thrust to the development of Indian Electronics Industry enabling it to take a quantum jump in turn-over. This was achieved through the various new initiatives and restructuring the Department of Electronics to make it a development oriented department with a professional and constructive culture. During this period, Mr. Nambiar launched several new strategic initiatives in research and development in electronics to build a self reliant technological base. |
||||||||||||
| The major projects initiated were: | ||||||||||||
|
Electronics R & D Centre, Trivandrum - as a National Institution. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) , Pune, for the development of supercomputers based on parallel processing. VLSI Design Centres - Ten centres all over India including the one in Trivandrum and at C-DAC, Pune. Electronics Research and Development Centres - Pune, Lucknow, Mohali and Calcutta. Centre for Electronics Design Technology, (CEDT) - Mohali in Punjab, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Calicut in Kerala. National Software Centre - Bangalore and Pune Society for Applied Micro Wave Electronics Engineering Research (SAMEER) 2nd phase - Madras and Bombay Mr Nambiar had published a large number of technical papers in national and international journals and his papers were presented at following international conference. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Mr Nambiar has been conferred with several Awards which include -
'VASVIK AWARD' in the field of ELECTRONIC SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - 1986,
National Design Award - 1985, (Institution of Engineers India),
Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of Electronics &
Telecommunication Engineers - 1986, Science & Technology Award - Kerala
1978. Republic Day Award by the Invention Promotion Board 1973;
Institution of Telecommunication Engineers Award - 1963; London County
Council Major Award for the post graduate studies at the Imperial
College of Science & Technology, University of London - 1955, In March 1973 the Federation of India Chambers of Commerce and Industry FICCI - 72 Award for outstanding contribution for research in Science and Technology was awarded to the Tata Electric Companies, Bombay in recognition of the pioneering work of the Electronic R & D of the Company. This award was received from the Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi by Mr Nambiar who established Tata Electronic R & D in 1967 and headed it till May 1973. In 1984 the FICCI-83 award in recognition of institutional initiative in research in Science and Technology was received by Mr K P P Nambiar, the founder Chairman of the Electronics Research and Development Centre at Trivandrum. In the same year the Electronic Component Industries Association ELCINA AWARD - 1983 in recognition of the contribution to research and development in electronics was also awarded to ER & DC. In September 1995, the Electronic Component Industries Association (ELCINA) honoured Mr Nambiar with the ELECTRONIC MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD for 1994-95. Mr K P P Nambiar has dedicated the last four decades of his professional life to the development of electronic technology of which during the last three decades he has pioneered the cause of indigenous R & D and self - reliance in electronics and building up new industries in the public and private sector and management of large enterprises. This has resulted in the establishment of several institutions in strategic areas in electronics throughout the country and in setting up of a chain of electronics industries in the State of Kerala and in the Electronics City in Karnataka. Since February 1995 Mr Nambiar has devoted considerable efforts and resources for the development of the Kannur Power Project and is now looking forward to its implementation, as a prelude to solving the power problem and industrialisation of the Malabar region of Kerala. He has been guiding two major post-graduate Institutions in the State of Kerala, the Indian Institute of Management (KOZHIKODE) under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India and Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Trivandrum, under the Government of Kerala since 1997 and 2000 respectively as the Chairman of the Board of both the Institutions. |
||||||||||||
|
