Ayyagari Sambasiva Rao (popularly known as A. S. Rao) (1914–2003) was born on 20th September, 1914 in a poor peasant’s family to Venkatachalam and Sundaramma at Mogallu village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. This village also happens to be the ancestral village of the great revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju.
Education
He had his primary schooling in his village and it became difficult for the struggling family to take care of his higher studies. His first break came from a gentlemen named Vanguri, a family friend from Tanuku, a small town located about 12KM from Mogullu village. Vanguri offered the boy shelter and one meal a day at his house. With the help from several kind hearted people A.S. Rao managed to complete SSLC at Tanuku. The next challenge was to complete his Intermediate, another two years struggle. Providence came from yet another corner: the M. R. College of Vizianagaram, which used to provide good meals in local choultry to deserving students pursuing their studies at M. R. College of Vizianagaram, a renowned seat of education in those days. A S Rao s determination eventually paid off, and he has successfully completed his Intermediate.
In 1935, with the encouragement from his brothers and family friends A S Rao reached Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where he completed his B.Sc and M.Sc in Physics with high academic honours. Having obtained MSc in Physics 1939 A S Rao stayed at BHU for few more years to work as a demonstrator/lecturer and to continue his research. A S Rao married Annapurna in April 1938.
Higher studies in USA
In The mid-40s Indian students used to go for higher studies to USA, where academic and industrial activity offered good career prospects. Some of A S Rao’s juniors obtained admission in US Universities. This inspired AS Rao to try his own luck. In 1944, a recommendation from no less a personality than Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, the Vice-Chancellor of BHU (1939-1948), ensured his admission into the prestigious Stanford University, California, USA. To cover his travel and living expenses A S Rao approached J. N. Tata endowment for higher education of Indians and won its coveted scholarship, which sanctioned him a loan of Rs 7000/- and a gift of Rs 5000/-. Due to ongoing world war with a nine-months delay he finally went to USA.
His stay at Stanford University helped him to improve his outlook and sharpen academic research skills. His association with David Packard, one of his contemporaries, came in handy many years later, while setting up ECIL in gaining deeper insight into the working methods of industrial giant HP (David Packard was one of the co-founders of Hewlett-Packard Co, popularly known as HP, the other co-founder being Bill Hewlett. These two Stanford electrical engineers started HP in 1939 out of a Palo Alto garage with $538 and a Sears-Roebuck drill press, which is now a multinational information technology company).
Back to the motherland
Upon completing his studies, A S Rao was offered a position as an assistant professor at Stanford with a salary of ₹1,40,000 per annum. However, he chose to return to India and joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) as a Reader in Experimental Physics (after a stint at IISC), earning a modest salary of ₹300 per month. Rao felt a deep sense of gratitude towards the Tata Group for sponsoring his education and believed it was his duty to contribute to India’s scientific development
1947 with a Degree of Engineering from Stanford University A S Rao returned to India and joined Indian Institute of Science (IISC, formerly TATA institute) Bangalore, to study cosmic rays and conduct High Altitude research. Homi Bhabha was also at IISC, carrying out research in an allied field. The two great souls of India met at that point of time to eventually create history in more than one field, which resulted highly fruitful over the years. He was assigned the task of designing and building equipment for measuring cosmic ray intensity at high altitudes. Inspired by his performance Homi Bhabha offered A S Rao the post of reader in TIFR (Tata institute of fundamental research). Bhabha decided to involve Rao in his ambitious and exciting atomic energy program. Thus, A S Rao grounded in Mumbai with a critical role in ensuring the nation’s first step towards self-reliance in Atomic Energy. He went on to play an important role in India’s nuclear program, in 1953 he joined Atomic Energy Establishment (AEET) at Trombay, now known as BARC. It was here he designed India’s first ever nuclear reactor Apsara that was commissioned in 1955, it took just 12 months, and would be one of the great scientific achievements of India, that made the West notice it. This reactor was an excellent experimental facility for our scientists to study effects of nuclear radiation. The team received appreciation from the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A S Rao was made the person in charge of the director of radiation protection, health physics and air monitoring divisions of AEET. After Homi Baba’s death AEET was renamed as Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in 1967. A S Rao also was instrumental in setting up the second reactor Cirrus, with the installation of control and safety systems, and also did the design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the entire electronics system for the 3rd reactor Zerlina, and radiation monitoring system for the plutonium plant at BARC. He also played a role in laying the foundation for India’s indigenous electronic development, as director, Electronics Group, BARC. During his tenure, he initiated many development and design programs on electronic materials, professional grade electronic components, digital computers. He led a team of nearly 1600 scientists, engineers, technicians for coming up with indigenous products, at a time, when India was fully dependent on West for even radio receivers.
Birth of ECIL
After the 1962 War defeat, the Govt realized the need of electronics for defense and nuclear programs, leading to the formation of a national committee for electronics in 1963, with Bhabha as the chairman, Sarabhai, Bhagavantham and AS Rao as members. The committee came out with a report that emphasized on self-reliance in electronics to modernize Indian industry. And this in turn would lead to establishment of Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) in 1967, with Sarabhai as chairman and Rao as the Managing Director.
A.S. Rao, as the founder-managing director of ECIL, brought instrumentation technology to global standards. ECIL was started in 1967 at Hyderabad with about 300 scientists and engineers and technicians. Throughout the formative years A S Rao kept close contact with the line leaders of ECIL. He formed a group called RAIDS (Review, Analysis, Interpolation and Development systems) which brought together dedicated senior line leaders and ECIL offering to common man televisions (Apsara brand). ECIL made a major mark in instrumentation for power reactors and manufacturing components. ECIL was able to make nuclear instruments, analytical instruments, gamma camera, scanning security, turbines, digital seismic systems, sound ranging systems, Automatic data handling systems, computers, EVMs, nano components, communication products etc… A S Rao adopted a rather decentralized way of management, in sharp contrast to most other PSUs, forming small teams, that worked on the products, and gave them complete freedom and empowered them to work with functional freedom.
One of ECIL’s major achievements was building the entire instrumentation, control systems that would successfully power India’s nuclear program. ECIL would be one of the foundations for India’s IT revolution too, and the credit goes to A S Rao. India’s first ever digital computer, earth station antenna, automatic message switching systems, were all produced during Rao’s tenure.
When he stepped down in 1978, he left his legacy at ECIL, inspiring a whole generation of electronics engineers. He represented India at many international conferences, including UN once on peaceful usage of atomic energy. He was on the editorial board of many scientific journals.
In real life he was known for his very simple and down-to-earth nature, often taking the bus to work, using public transport mostly. He passed away on October 31, 2003 leaving his mark in India’s nuclear program.
Beyond his professional achievements, Dr. A.S. Rao’s legacy is defined by his impeccable integrity and dedication to public service. His ethical leadership set a benchmark for corporate governance in India, earning him the respect and admiration of colleagues and competitors alike.
Dr. A.S. Rao’s impact extends far beyond the realms of technology. His philanthropic endeavours and initiatives for social welfare reflect his compassionate nature and commitment to uplifting society.
Awards and honours:
1960 Padma Shri
1969 Shanthi Swarup Bhatnagar Award
1969 Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa, from Andhra University
1972 Padma Vibhushan
1974 Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences
1976 FICCI Award for outstanding achievement in Engineering
1977 National design Award from Institution of Engineers (India)
1988 Outstanding Scientist Award from A.P. Academy of Science
1989 Prof. Nayudamma Memorial Gold Medal
2000 The man of the century of Indian electronics’
Postal stamp was released on 16 November 2014 on the occasion of his birth centenary.
The housing colony near the ECIL township in Secunderabad where many ECIL employees built their houses is named as Dr. A.S. Rao Nagar after the founder of ECIL, A S Rao.
A book titled ‘The man with a vision’ was written on Dr.A.S.Rao by D. Mohana Rao.
A S Rao’s legacy was continued in ECIL by his team members who were nurtured by him when he was at the helm of the PSU. Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) which never heard of a loss went into red post the globalization scenario due to competition from the MNCs and the private sector. The problems got accentuated post the Pokhran Nuclear Tests, when ECIL was included in the Entities List by the US Department of Commerce implying total clamping of export embargoes to ECIL on all items of US origin. ECIL, which was a profit-making body in 1992-97, went into losses in 1998-99 and the net worth of the company got very badly eroded. ECIL signed MoU seeking some conditional help from the Department of Atomic Energy, giving a commitment of minimum guaranteed performance over a period of time. ECIL kept its word and registered ‘Excellent’ rating for four consecutive years with a perfect score of ‘1’ during 2002-03. ECIL employees worked together as a team and fought back with determination and hard work leading to the turnaround of the PSU.
The author has an anecdote to narrate in this regard. The author during his banking days was handling the trade finance business relationship of ECIL for close to one and half decade. The US Sanctions on Bharat imposed in May, 1998 were lifted in 1999. After the US Sanctions were lifted, ECIL was negotiating a critical import deal (involving a series of transactions) from US client and in this connection one of the senior executives of ECIL was on visit to USA. One late night this author suddenly got a call from this senior executive of ECIL from USA. ECIL had already procured one batch of material from the US client under the Letter of credit opened by the author’s bank and its payment was due only after 6 months. However, the US client insisted for immediate payment offering huge discount instead of waiting for 6 months which was a precondition for the supply of further materials. As the materials were very critical for ECIL and uninterrupted supply of the same was essential, the senior executive of ECIL who was on visit to USA agreed to make immediate payment. The US client insisted for a confirmation from the bankers of ECIL that the payment would be made by the next working day. Due to the time zone difference when the senior executive of ECIL called this author though it was afternoon 3 pm at that US location it was almost 1.30 am in Hyderabad, Bharat. Along with the author another official of the bank literally went to the bank at late night, sent an authentic telex message (those days global financial messages were by and large sent by tested telex) to the bankers of the US client confirming that the author’s bank would be effecting the payment on the next working day. US client’s bankers could not believe that a bank from Bharat would send financial message at midnight (IST) and they wanted a written communication in bank’s letter head duly signed by the authorised officials to be sent by fax and further followed by a telephonic confirmation of the same. The author’s bank complied with all of their conditions. In the process ECIL got a huge price discount. The purpose of narrating this anecdote is to highlight how that senior executive of ECIL struggled to negotiate a tough deal and save money to ECIL, ensure timely supply of the critical imports from US client when ECIL was in losses and making efforts to turn around the company.
Ralph Nader once said, “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” A S Rao set an example of this and his legacy continues in ECIL.
Dr. B.N.V. Parthasarathi
Ex Senior Banker, Management and Financial Consultant, Visiting Faculty at Premier B Schools and Universities. E mail- [email protected].
