Dr. Arun
Netravali heads
the world-renowned Bell Labs.
This bright
man graduated from IIT Mumbai in 1967, a time when there were
not many opportunities available in India. He went to Rice University,
Houston where he earned MS and Ph.D degrees.
His first job was with NASA where he worked for a couple of years.
Soon he was working with the best minds in the world, at Bell
Labs. After 27 years of dedication, today, he heads the renowned
research organization.
He successfully headed the research into the creation of HDTV
or High Definition Television. At
the heart of HDTV's successful concept is a powerful video compression
algorithm by Netravali, who is considered one of the foremost
scientists in the area of digital video transmission.
Netravali
has been at the head of several groundbreaking researches, among
them a major broadband breakthrough, the first software-based
network switch for both data and voice networks. He was also involved
in the world's first long-distance transmission of a terabit (a
trillion bits) of information per second over a single strand
of optical fiber; and the making of the world's smaller working
transistor -- a major semiconductor breakthrough.
About
his work with Bell Labs, Netravali says, "It's a terrific time
for technology and communications. Bell Labs has always been at
the forefront of the information revolution and I am honored,
excited, delighted at the prospect."
Netravali is the ninth head of the research organization that
will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year. Over this period,
Bell Labs has produced six Nobel Prize winners and some 30 thousand
inventions, playing a pivotal role in twentieth century technologies,
including the revolutionary invention of the transistor. Bell
Labs today employs about 25,000 employees in 20 countries, and,
has a budget of almost $4 billion, making it by far the largest
communications research organization in the world.
This
is what he had to say about the lifetime of a career in Bell Labs-
"It has been really, really exhilarating to work among so many
smart people, and in leadership positions, helping them succeed,
watch them put their terrific minds to the problems. In my position
now, I just want to stay out of their way and only provide a good
environment for research".
At 53, he looks forward to many more inventions that would transform
our lives in the future.
Azim
Hasham Premji, 54 years of age, heads the Wipro Group involved
in the manufacture of products as diverse as soaps, lighting and
infotech.
He
dropped out of Stanford when he was 22. The first thing Premji
did when he had to rush back from Stanford, without completing
his engineering degree, was to professionalise the family's vegetable
oil business. Cooking oils began to be sold in packets instead
of bulk containers. Marketing and distribution network expanded
in the rural areas to show a rise in the turnover from Rs. 40
million in 1965-66 to Rs.104.09 million in 1970-71. This was enough
for Premji to diversify into fluid power as it supported the infrastructure
and shift base to Bangalore, a city of research institutions and
precision engineering industries. Five years later, Wipro had
got into building mini computers under license from Sentinel computer
corporation, U.S.
Ratan Tata and Premji were the only two who insisted that it was,
indeed, necessary to first create a market and develop it for
computers.
"He is one person who sees opportunity and vulnerability
far ahead of time. When everything is going good, he is able to
say 12 to 18 months before time what will happen. It's so uncanny,
that it actually happens," says Subroto Bagchi, vice chairman
of MindTree Consulting and a former Wipro vice president.
He
has transformed the original 'Western India Vegetable Products'
into the Rs 18.26 billion Wipro Corporation, a well respected,
highly diversified, professionally managed company. Wipro was
the first software company in the world to acquire the Software
Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI-CMM) Level
5 certification for quality.
The company recently invested large amounts of time and money
into creating a new identity for itself, complete with a new logo.
The
richest Indian, with a net worth of $6.90 billion, travels economy
class and stays in value-for-money hotels. No family members work
at the group, and Premji has made it clear that his sons, Tariq
and Rishad, both students, will have to earn a place in the company.
A very private person, Premji welcomes international competition.
"It raises product quality and expands the market," he says.
Professor
Amartya Kumar Sen - The
Indian Nobel Laureate in Economics
Born
in Shantiniketan, Bengal in 1933 to the daughter of Rabindranath
Tagore’s secretary. Not many people are aware that it
was Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate, who named him
‘Amartya’ which means "other-worldly".
Tagore had said, "It's an outstanding name. I can see
the boy will grow into an outstanding person." Little
did his parents realise that the words would be true.
In 1998, Sen’s hard work for the last thirty years paid
off when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in recognition
for his outstanding contributions to ‘Welfare Economics’.
He is the sixth Indian Nobel Laureate and the first Asian
to win the Nobel Prize For Economics.
After graduating from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1953,
he began his career in the early 1950s teaching economics
at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. He has held students spell-bound
at Cambridge, the London School of Economics, Oxford, and
Harvard (where he was the Lamont University Professor for
10 years from 1988, holding a joint position in Economics
and philosophy). He returned to Cambridge as Master of Trinity
College, in January 1999, a coveted post never before held
by a non-Caucasian or even a non-Briton.
Sen’s philosophy was that instead of focussing on a growth
oriented economic path to prosperity, emphasis should be on
giving a human face to development. Prof Amartya Sen, with
his emphasis on welfare economics and definition of poverty
in relation to development, has offered a new philosophy and
an alternative to socio-economic development.
His books and articles are thought provoking and have won
him worldwide acclaim. He has over thirty books and numerous
articles to his credit. His emphasis on economic analysis,
has set many of his students thinking and analysing economic
issues.
Sen in his autobiography quoted Robert Goheen, "If you
feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then
the university has failed you." Right on…but then
who doesn’t want to break new ground? There are places
to go. This is precisely what Sen is doing!
The
story goes like this…one summer of 1956, Amar Bose went
in search for a perfect pair of speakers. He loved the sounds
created in the best concert halls in New York. He wanted that
replicated at home. Well! There was nothing 'good enough'
to satisfy his desire. So instead of waiting around for 'that'
speaker, he decided to build one himself. So came Mr. Bose,
with the best speakers known to mankind.
Bose
began his research on psycho-acoustics, which is the relation
between human perceptions of sound as against electronically
measured sound. His research helped him acquire twelve patents
in sound engineering.
Marketing
his patents became a huge headache because companies all over
wanted the person behind the research, not the patent. Help
was not far away, YW Lee an MIT professor dished out $10,000
on Bose's ideas. Lee never had to look back and regret his
decision, his investment amounted to $260,000.
Today
Bose Corp has factories in Australia, Mexico and Ireland,
apart from the ones in three American states, employing 3000+
people. Bose's flagship product, 901 stereo speakers had made
him a household name for acoustical products.
Bose's
childhood was one of hard work. The world war-II affected
his father's business quite heavily. To help support the family,
Bose took up odd jobs. It was then that his interest in electronics
triggered by observing miniature trains. He started out by
buying old models that couldn't be repaired by the shops and
fixed them. This soon became a way of earning some good pocket
money. Amar Bose finally went on to study electrical engineering
at MIT.
Bose's
first contributions were the 901 stereo speakers, which was
a runaway hit with those who loved 'true sound'.
His
other creations include Wave radios and the Wave Music System,
which include a CD or cassette player, an AM/FM stereo tuner
and speakers. Not to forget, his Auditor System that helps
architects design buildings with perfect acoustics. His hallmark
is products that combine high technology with simplicity and
small size.
Bose
also undertook car audio systems. Now some of the world's
best cars like Mazda sports Bose audio systems. NASA space
shuttles, QE-II liner, Broadway theatres, Winter Olympics
are just some of the places that house Bose products.
Age does not hold back this man. At the age of 67, presiding
over a $550 million plus company, still puts in 80 hours per
week. He also has time for his favourite sports, swimming
and badminton. He relaxes by teaching electrical engineering
and computer science at MIT.
Ashutosh
Roy, a Stanford M.B.A, a Masters in Computer Science from
Johns Hopkins University is the Co-founder, Chairman and CEO
of eGain, a leading provider of Interaction Management software.
Egain offers a suite of solutions that considerably improves
efficiency and in turn increases customer retention. The company's
software suite includes applications for email management,
Web collaboration and self-service, and enterprise-wide knowledge
management. Egain has its presence over 18 countries and they
have 800 enterprise customers, which include big names like
AOL Time Warner, Charles Schwab and Verizon, who use its solutions.
Roy
is one of the earlier Netpreneur who co-founded WhoWhere?
Inc., an Internet-service company and Parsec Technologies.
His
current venture is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
It seems like Roy has hit the goldmine with his revenue for
March 2001, was $13.4 million, which is a 300% increase over
last years $3.3. The company has won "Best of Show"
Award at Internet World and the Strategy Leadership Award
from Frost & Sullivan. Its product eGain Live 3.0 was
hailed as "Product of the Year" by Customer Inter@ction
Solutions Magazine, while its Email Management System (eGain
EMS) was selected as "Best of Show" at CTI Expo
and has also won two "Product of the Year" awards
earlier.
This
leading software provider is focusing on "building and
developing an ecosystem of partners that can complement its
offerings in delivering a complete solution to customers".
P
Amar