A S Rao- Make in India man
The technologist, who founded ECIL, Hyderabad and demonstrated how to ‘Make in India’ in the 1960’s, specially in electronics. Hyderabad can surely boast of having the AS Rao nagar, a locality, close to the ECIL, which is bustling with life, named after this extraordinary person, who lived a simple, reclusive but totally dedicated and exemplary scientist life.
Though, I hardly met him personally, his name is revered in the science & technology circles. Only his very low profile, often makes him less known compared to his far reaching contributions. So, I felt very privileged, to find a small mention of my contribution too in this biographical work on A S Rao brought out in 2020 by some of his close colleagues and well wishers, especially –S R Vijayakar (Ex MD and successor to Rao in 1978), EVR Rao (PhD student) and M R Parthasarathy, who came with Rao from Mumbai to stat the ECIL in 1967.
September 20 is the 108th birth anniversary of A S Rao, who passed away in 2003. He was born in Mogallu in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on Sep 29, 1914. He studied in Andhra University , BHU before going to Stanford University on a J N Tata endowment. He not just laid the foundation but shaped the ECIL’s technology directions.
In the first 25 years since 1967, it came up with indigenous products like the EC TV, Electronic Voting Machine, Antenna, radar and communication systems plus the Mainframe Computer. The book: A S Rao- Scientist, Visionary , Humanist is a collection of articles and photos that capture the many contributions towards achieving self reliance and his life.
Somasekhar Mulugu
Independent Journalist, Author