Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala – Living his Tenets to the T

From transforming India’s telecom landscape to shaping generations of innovators, Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala has spent decades proving that meaningful technology begins with solving real problems. In this candid and reflective conversation around his biography Roots & Wings, he shares interesting insights on what makes him a revered mentor, institution-builder and the best version of himself.

Anyone who has interacted with Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala would have figured in the first few minutes of a conversation with him that his mind works at the speed of lightning and if you can’t keep up, well, face the thunder. He doesn’t suffer fools or sycophants, so just cut to the chase. The man is on a mission — to make technology solve India’s real problems. So you either match that sense of purpose and urgency, or step aside.

Shunning the American Dream
His has been quite an interesting and chequered career. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur (B.Tech in Electrical Engineering) and University of Maine (MS and PhD), followed by a teaching stint at Washington State University – the natural career progression of a typical IITian.  But Prof Jhunjhunwala made an unconventional choice of returning to India in 1981, when he was just 28. At an age when his contemporaries were living the American Dream, a deep sense of giving back to his motherland motivated him to join IIT Madras, where he spent over four decades teaching, mentoring, and building technologies aimed at solving real-world problems.

Having returned to India during the scarcity economy of the Licence Raj era, Prof Jhunjhunwala recalls striking anecdotes of the time — waiting years for a telephone connection, being placed on a four-year waiting list for a scooter, and jokingly being told that a gas connection would likely arrive only for the next generation! Those recollections offer a vivid glimpse into an India that has since transformed dramatically in both access and aspiration.

Over the years, he played a key role in shaping India’s telecom and innovation ecosystem via his TeNet group, (which built affordable, India-centric technologies in telecom, internet connectivity, banking, renewable energy, and electric mobility) and fostering generations of entrepreneurs and researchers. He later helped establish the pioneering IIT Madras Research Park, creating a strong bridge between industry, academia, and startups. Today, through Immersive Technology and Entrepreneurship Labs (ITEL), his focus remains on building deep-tech ecosystems and driving technology-led solutions for national challenges.

Beyond Mere Academics
A proverbial guru for the greater part of his life, Prof Jhunjhunwala has a soft spot for the outliers. He believes students shouldn’t be judged purely by grades, but by their aspirations, values, and willingness to contribute meaningfully to society. The role of education, according to him, is not just to produce people who maximise wealth, but to shape strong human beings who want to excel, solve tough problems, and make a difference.

He also stresses that teachers have a larger responsibility — to instil the right values, encourage independent thinking, and push students to take on real-world challenges. While some may naturally pursue wealth creation, education should also inspire students to address the biggest problems facing India and the world through innovation and purposeful work.

Open Heart, Open Hearth
His working style is deeply hands-on and people-centric. He personally mentors students and founders not just professionally, but often helps them through personal challenges as well, believing that innovation requires both emotional and intellectual support. Prof Jhunjhunwala’s views are shared by his wife Bhavani, often described as the force behind the couple’s famously open home, where students, researchers, and startup founders often gather over tea and meals. Many young entrepreneurs, especially in the early startup days, relied not just on Prof. Jhunjhunwala’s guidance but also on Bhavani ma’am’s hospitality. In several anecdotes, founders recall that visits to their home came with “scolding from Professor and food from Bhavani ma’am.” 

June-Julywala and the Joy of Work
A tough taskmaster, he earned the nickname June-Julywala from his students for ensuring their holidays were anything but a break, by constantly pushing them beyond their comfort zones to recognise their true potential. His expectations are intense. As anyone who has worked closely with Prof Jhunjhunwala will tell you, “You either love him or hate him. But you can’t ignore him.” 

In response to the omnipresent  work-life balance question, he says, “I enjoy simple things — watching cricket, Bollywood movies, and spending time with people. But for me, there is also real joy in work itself. Meaningful and creative work helps put worries aside rather than add to them. I believe work-life balance is different for different people. If work feels like a burden, balance becomes difficult. But when you enjoy what you do, work becomes energising”.

Chasing Problems, Not Trends
Remarkably prescient in anticipating India’s technology needs, ask him what the next big thing is and he states rather matter-of-factly, “When we worked on wireless communication, it was because telephones were unaffordable (it took me 8 years to get a phone) and inaccessible in India. When we built low-cost ATMs, it was because India needed affordable banking infrastructure. When we worked on mobile payments, the goal was inclusion and accessibility — not chasing trends. For me, the real question is: what are the important problems we still need to solve? Can we improve transportation? Solve waterlogging in cities? Tackle air quality issues? Build independence in cybersecurity? These are the challenges that truly matter. If you solve meaningful problems well, the solutions will naturally become big.

These are not easy, obvious problems with quick solutions. For example, to make telephony accessible, we first had to build an entire research and innovation ecosystem around it. The work was always driven by what needed to be done — not by the ambition to create the “next big thing.” If something eventually becomes transformative or commercially successful, that’s a byproduct. I’ve never worked with the goal of chasing trends or predicting the next wave. The focus has always been on solving meaningful problems well”.

Where Saraswati Meets Lakshmi
Having pioneered industry-academia collaborations, two entities as diverse as Saraswati and Lakshmi, yet merging towards meaningful knowledge and wealth creation, Prof Jhunjhunwala rues the current hype around it. “I’m happy that everyone is now talking about industry-academia collaboration, but I’m also concerned that in many places it has become more of a showcase than a serious effort to create impact. The most important thing is that the collaboration must make economic sense and ultimately help create wealth — by strengthening industry, scaling technology, and building successful products and companies. Otherwise, the impact remains limited. At the end of the day, the objective should be value creation for society as a whole. If  the focus is only on appearances or publicity, then the purpose is lost”.

Startups, Struggle and Substance
Prof Jhunjhunwala has helped create and mentor hundreds of startups through the IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) and IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC). By 2024, at his retirement, the ecosystem had incubated over 350+ deep-tech startups, collectively valued at over Rs.50,0000 crore, generating an estimated 11K+ direct jobs, many of which went on to become major companies, unicorns, soonicorns and indicorns. Business creation is a rough road. And when you add to that the current media hype around startups and funding rounds, it can sometimes become a disservice, he concurs, “Easy money can hurt an ecosystem. Entrepreneurship is not supposed to be easy — it requires struggle, resilience, and solving real problems. When startups are treated like a trend or success is reduced only to valuations and funding, it creates the wrong mindset. India has historically been an entrepreneurial society. Before colonial rule, India was known globally for innovation, trade, craftsmanship, and technological capability across many fields. Entrepreneurship and enterprise were deeply embedded in society.

Over time, those strengths weakened due to colonialism and later economic thinking that did not fully recognise entrepreneurship as a driver of national progress. But fundamentally, entrepreneurship is what creates growth and innovation. The important thing is that the wealth created should ultimately benefit society as a whole”.

From Brain Drain to Brain Gain
This naturally brings us to the phenomenon of India’s brain drain or in today’s scenario a reverse trend where students aren’t as enamoured by the prospects of a foreign education. Prof Jhunjhunwala observes, “Earlier, many talented students went abroad because India did not offer enough clear opportunities in research, industry, or academia. The system was structured in a way that made it easier to fit into global companies and universities than to build meaningful careers here.

But over the last 30–40 years, India has changed significantly. Strong industries, startups, research ecosystems, and top-quality institutions have emerged, creating many more opportunities within the country. Today, many of the best students choose to stay back because they can work on challenging and meaningful problems here itself. When people are given exciting problems to solve, good teams to work with, and the freedom to innovate, they stay. The rise of startups has also played a major role in creating that excitement and opportunity.”

He also points out that many Indians now want to return, partly because conditions in the West are no longer seen as unquestionably better. In his view, recent global developments have reminded Indians that long-term progress ultimately depends on building opportunities within their own country. “There is still immense hunger among young Indians, especially from middle -and lower-middle-class backgrounds to work hard, persevere, and create meaningful change. In contrast, those who already have everything taken care of may not always feel the same drive. And ultimately, it only takes a committed percentage of people to make a real difference. So overall, I’m quite optimistic and not particularly concerned”.

India’s Got Talent: Creating the Full Stack Here
Prof Jhunjhunwala has always advocated indigenous self-reliance long before it became a buzzword. He believes that India must develop its own technologies because, as a large country, we cannot depend entirely on imports. The current “Make in India” push is a positive step, but it often stops at assembly. For example, many products may be assembled in India, but the design, core technology, and components are still imported. That creates limited value and relatively few jobs.

Real technological leadership comes from designing, developing, and controlling the full technology stack — including components and subsystems. That is where true value creation happens. To achieve this, India needs to train students and engineers not just for routine tasks, but for deep design, innovation, and problem-solving. Institutions like IITs and IIITs have a critical role in pushing young people to take on challenging engineering problems. When given the right environment and expectations, Indian talent is capable of extraordinary innovation.

“I also feel the Indian industry could still be far more ambitious. We have capable companies and good progress in areas like electric vehicles and telecom, but we are often not aggressive enough about becoming the best in the world through deep technology and large-scale innovation”, he adds.

Legacy Beyond Awards
The recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including the Padma Shri (2002) one of India’s highest civilian honours, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1998) India’s premier science and engineering award, IEEE Fellow (2009) and more, and having served on several government committees, advisory bodies, and public sector boards over the years, the karmayogi unsurprisingly does not view any of the latter as his accomplishments. Instead he says, “My greatest achievement is not awards, but seeing the ventures, students, and people I mentored succeed beyond me. There is immense joy in helping others build something meaningful and watching them excel. One lesson I learned early from Prof P. V. Indiresan (former  Director of IIT-M) was that a teacher should always want their students to do better than them. If you encourage people to grow, they achieve great things — and that becomes your real legacy. Today, many people who worked with and trained under me have gone on to lead institutions and organisations. That, to me, matters far more than titles or recognition”.

Purpose, Persistence and Gandhian Values
Despite his noted successes, there have been many roadblocks along the way – bureaucracy, political interference, blatant plagiarism, personal setbacks, and even death threats – the kind that would have broken anyone else had it not been for Prof Jhunjhunwala’s guts of steel. Ruminating on those challenges which only made him stronger he says, “A major influence on me was my grandfather, a Gandhian, who told me something before I joined IIT Kanpur: if students who receive the best education, teachers, and opportunities do not work to solve society’s problems, then who will? That sense of responsibility stayed with me throughout my life.

What has sustained me is that I was never chasing personal success alone. The goal was always societal impact. When you work for something larger than yourself, it gives you the strength to persevere. Despite enormous obstacles, Gandhi remained committed to his values and continued relentlessly toward his goal. That spirit of purpose and persistence is something I deeply admire and try to follow”.

The Banyan and the Institution Builder
The banyan emerges as a living metaphor of his life and work right from his years at  IIT-M,  to Chairman of IIIT Hyderabad’s governing council since 2023. Closely associated with the institute right from its inception, he observes, “In many ways, IIIT Hyderabad has achieved high quality, especially in academics and research. But it also needs to push harder toward creating real-world impact through innovation, entrepreneurship, and indigenous technology development.

One challenge is that traditional academic thinking still prioritises publishing papers and teaching, without enough focus on translating research into societal and industrial impact. As chairman, my focus has been to push the institution toward deeper industry collaboration, innovation, and impact-driven work. That naturally brings resistance, but meaningful change requires continuously questioning old systems and raising expectations”.

Life’s Momentum and Meaning
Now in his early 70s, the professor still has the energy and excitement of someone who’s just getting started. So what is his ikigai? He replies, “What drives me is simple: I genuinely enjoy the work. Even the small wins — a great idea, a beautiful design, a team breakthrough — give me energy. Beyond that, it’s the feeling that we’re contributing and making a difference. And most importantly, it’s the people. When you work with trust, empowerment, and mutual respect, hierarchy stops mattering. That shared energy and purpose is what keeps me going.”

Roots and Wings, Prof Jhunjhunwala’s biography offers an intimate look at his ideas, values, struggles, and relentless belief in solving meaningful problems through technology. The compelling and inspiring read is available on Amazon