It takes a doer to make pathbreaking changes

From R&D for the armed forces to establishing telephone exchanges in rural India—Dr Bishnu D Pradhan has had a momentous career. He shares with Sudipta Dev the most enriching experiences of his professional life

Dr Bishnu D Pradhan, Director Technology Development and General Manager, Maharashtra Hub-Media Lab Asia

He is an achiever who has always been guided by a single vision in life—to touch the sky with feet firmly planted on terra firma. That’s Dr Bishnu D Pradhan for you, a man who believes in creating dreams without losing touch with reality. His illustrious career spanning 37 long years is proof enough of the fact. From being a part of the core team that developed defence systems for the armed forces to heading large scale deployment of telephone exchanges all over the country—Pradhan has seen his labour of love make pathbreaking transformations.

Graduating from IIT Kharagpur in Electronics and Communication Engineering, at a time it was not a very popular subject, he went to the US for further studies. Following his MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas, he pursued his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania with special focus on computer hardware. “During the day I was working in the department of high energy physics and would take classes at night. We did pioneering work on real-time data acquisition systems,” says he. Pradhan came back to India with his family in 1971, not because he did not want to pursue a career in the US, but because “my wife wanted to return,” he discloses with a smile.

Pradhan joined the R&D division of Tata Electrical companies and remained with the group for 18 years, during which he was part of a core group that achieved many milestones. Apart from doing pioneering work in digital calculators, industrial electronics, inverters, etc, they also worked on the development of early TVs and India’s first microprocessor system. But the highpoint of his career was the R&D work they did for the military. “We obtained a contract as part of an air defence project and through this opened up a whole new area of R&D in defence by the private sector,” he points out with obvious pride. After bagging the project for command and control systems for the airforce, they subsequently got another prestigious assignment for the Indian Navy. A lot of work was being done at that time on radar data processing, command and control systems, etc.

Later, it was another calling that attracted Pradhan. He was appointed as the chairman of the Project Board and executive director of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), after the exit of Sam Pitroda. During the five years he was with C-DOT, he was able to commission a large number of rural exchanges. “We were able to complete exchanges from 10,000 lines to 40,000 lines. It also involved transfer of technology to nearly 30 manufacturing companies,” he adds. By the time he left the organisation, nearly 50 percent of phones in the country were connected to C-DOT exchanges.

Pradhan is quick to acknowledge that one of the most satisfying experiences in his career have been establishing a very significant private sector role in R&D for military systems. “We were involved in all major defence contracts in the country. I had the opportunity to interact with defence chiefs and present new concepts in air defence,” he says, adding, “With C-DOT it was to see the way our role made a difference to the life of people in villages.”

After C-DOT he joined Motorola as executive director and general manager for cellular infrastructure in South Asia. In 1997, he decided to return home to Mumbai and took up an assignment as senior vice president and regional general manager of ICO Global Communications. The ambitious vision of hand-held satellite phones unfortunately ended with the collapse of Iridium and the company decided to close down its operations. In March this year he joined Media Lab Asia as director technology development and general manager, Maharashtra hub.

“The challenge now is how we can exploit the opportunity that we have to bring the best brains in the country to make breakthrough ideas. We have been setting up labs in IITs and creating an environment where free interaction can take place,” says Pradhan about his new responsibility. He points out that if one has a credible story, the government is always willing to support it. “The government has helped to set up the lab and has nurtured it, now the aim for the next three years is to get private funding,” he says.

Pradhan admits that he has been involved with R&D for most part of his career, but his main responsibility has primarily been to convince people to give money for what has not been done before. “Convince people that we can do it and then do it,” he says with conviction. His greatest motivation? “To show what we can do in our country in spite of all limitations. Also, give challenges to young people so that they can make enormous contributions,” answers Pradhan, adding that he firmly believes that even ordinary people can become extraordinary.

He has won many prestigious awards including the VASVIK and DSIR award from the Department of Science and Technology. But the man appears to be more proud of his wife’s achievements than his own, and informs that Nita Pradhan is India’s first cardiac thoracic surgeon and probably the fastest implanter of pacemakers in the country.

Conquering new heights is also a passion for Pradhan—quite literally! Last year he scaled 22,000 feet of Mount Everest (from the Tibetan side), and someday plans to climb all the way to the top.