Industry Track
02, February 2008
Industry Track: Challenges and Opportunities for Growth in Indian Telecom
Chair - Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, (IIT Madras)
Session I: (10.15 am – 11.45 am)
10:15 am - 10:55 am: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala (IIT Madras)Keynote Speech
10:55 am - 11:20 am: Mr. Lav Gupta (Pr. Advisor, Fixed Networks, TRAI)
Converged core and Next-gen networks
11:20 am - 11:45 am: Mr. Vivek Jhamb (COO Long-distance, Vodafone Essar)
Converged IP/MPLS backbone for wireless services
11:45 am - 12:00 am: Tea Break
Session II: (12.00 pm – 01.15 pm)
12:00 pm - 12:25 pm: Mr. M. Viswanathan (SVP, Reliance Communications)High availability of network on transport systems
12:25 pm - 12:50 pm: Mr. Birjoo Mehta (VP, Tata-VSNL)
End-to-end managed services
12:50 pm - 01:15 pm: Dr. Thomas Frisanco (Director, Nokia-Simens Networks)
Future of broadband access in India
13:15 pm - 14:30 pm Lunch Break
Session III: (02.30 pm – 04.05 pm)
02:30 pm - 03:15 pm: Mr. Jayant Khosla (Exec Director, Western, Bharti Airtel)Keynote: Mobile Telecom - Journey, Strategies & Challenges
03:15 pm - 03:40 pm: Mr. Sharat Chandra (COO, GTL International Limited)
Wimax solutions
03:40 pm - 04:05 pm: Dr. Pravin Bhagwat (CTO, AirTight Networks)
Wireless security
04:05 pm - 04:15 pm: Tea Break
Session IV: (04.15 pm – 06.30 pm)
04:15 pm - 04:40 pm: Dr. Kumar Sivarajan (CTO, Tejas Networks)Packet-based transport for wireless broadband
04:40 pm - 05:05 pm: Dr. Vinod Vasudevan (SVP, Reliance Communications)
Trends & Challenges in Broadband Services
05:05 pm - 05:30 pm: Mr. M. K. Shedha (CGM, MTNL) & P.K. Pande (DGM, MTNL)
Triple-play on DSL
05:30 pm - 05:55 pm: Midas Communications - to be confirmed
05:55 pm - 06:20 pm: Cisco speaker - to be confirmed
06:20 pm - 06:30 pm: Concluding Remarks/Thanks
07:30 pm - 09:30 pm: Banquet
Go to Top
Bio of Speakers for Industry Track (Listed in order of Talks)
02, February 2008
Industry Track: Challenges and Opportunities for Growth in Indian Telecom
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, (IIT Madras)
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India and was department Chair till recently. He received his B.Tech degree from IIT, Kanpur, and his MS and Ph.D degrees from the University of Maine. From 1979 to 1981, he was with Washington State University as Assistant Professor. Since 1981, he has been teaching at IIT, Madras.
Dr.Jhunjhunwala leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. This group is closely working with industry in the development of a number of Telecommunications and Computer Network Systems. TeNeT group has incubated a number of technology companies which work in partnership with TeNeT group to develop world class Telecom and Banking products for Rural Markets.
Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala has been awarded Padma Shri in the year 2002. He has been awarded Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1998, Dr.Vikram Sarabhai Research Award for the year 1997, Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress in the year 2000 and H. K. Firodia for "Excellence in Science & Technology" for the year 2002, Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation Award for Science & Technology for the year 2004, Awarded Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award by INSA for the year 2006 and IBM Innovation and Leadership Forum Award by IBM for the year 2006. He is a Fellow of Wireless World Research Forum, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Jhunjhunwala is a Director in the Board of SBI. He is also a Board member of several companies in India, including TTML, BEL, Polaris, 3i Infotech, Sasken, Tejas, NRDC, and IDRBT. He is member of Prime Minister’s Setup Scientific Advisory Committee.
Research Interests: Telecommunications and Wireless Systems, Technologies for Rural Areas
Go Back
Jayant Khosla, Executive Director, Mobility Western Region, Bharti Airtel
Jayant is a Mechanical Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he specialized in Strategic Business Planning and Marketing.
He has a diverse work experience of 22 years, in Multinationals both in India and overseas with entities like SmithKline Beecham, Gillette, DHL Worldwide Express, Continental Beverages – Moscow, and Soulife Entertainment Holdings Inc USA. Prior to joining Bharti he was the Regional Vice President, Western Region of Coca Cola India.
Jayant joined Bharti, in March 2004 as the CEO, Mumbai. Currently he is the Executive Director for the Western Region.
Go Back
Sharat Chandra - President and COO, GTL International
Mr. Sharat Chandra is a seasoned telecom professional and brings with him a wealth of experience of more than 26 years. Mr Chandra overlooks the functional and operational aspects of the company. His responsibilities include enabling a smooth integration of all acquired international companies and formulating a common thread of business strategy tying in all business units of GTL group. He is also closely associated in establishing group business strategy to gain new markets and enhance stakeholder value across all businesses of the group. Additionally, he has keenly supported to expand the company’s global operations in the WIMax space by establishing WiMax Centre of Excellence.
Mr. Sharat Chandra comes to GTL International from Motorola India Private Limited where he was Director Operations, Networks & Enterprises business. During his 14-year tenure with Motorola he held several key executive positions and has a vast experience in areas like Sales, Engineering, Strategic planning, Business Development and Operations Mr. Chandra was keenly engaged in developing business strategies and executed them to profitably grow the Networks business for Motorola.
His core expertise lies in high-tech and telecommunications industries, and brings with him strong leadership and domain expertise. Mr. Chandra has addressed many National and Internal forums on various aspects of technology and Telecom business and is well recognized for his strength in building and retaining customer relationships and his abilities to conceptualize, convert and sustain enterprise growth through engaging with an opportunity early on and giving it a tangible shape.
Mr. Sharat Chandra is an engineer in Electronics and Telecom from Delhi College of Engineering. He has done his Master in Management from Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi.
Go Back
Dr. Kumar Sivarajan (CTO, Tejas Networks)
Kumar N. Sivarajan obtained the B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering (Electronics) from IIT Madras, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.
From 1990--1994, Mr. Sivarajan was with IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY. From 1994--2000, Mr. Sivarajan was with the Electrical Communication Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Since May 2000, he is Chief Technology Officer of Tejas Networks, Bangalore.
Go Back
Dr. Vinod Vasudevan, SVP, Reliance Communications
Dr. Vinod heads Integrated Services at Reliance Communications, responsible for services leadership and service innovation across the Wireless, (CDMA & GSM), Wire line and Broadband networks. He has been with Reliance Communications since its inception in 2002 and has been involved in defining the strategy and direction for Data Services and Value Added Services, resulting in various innovative and widely recognized services.
Go Back
Mr. M. K. Shedha (CGM, MTNL)
Mr. M K Shedha is the Chief General Manager of CETTM, the Center for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management, MTNL's premier training institute. He belongs to Indian Telecommunication Services 1978 batch. In his career spanning more than 26 years in the Telecom Industry he has taken up a wide variety of assignments in DoT , C-DOT and MTNL. He has been member of DoT's Switching group and was with C-DOT as Sr. Group Leader specialising in Call Processing Software development. As DGM of Non-Voice Services ( Data Services) in MTNL Mumbai he was member of Telecom Advisory Committee of all three stock exchanges in Mumbai. He has also headed many telecom service areas including one at Srinagar in J&K. As General Manager (IT) he headed the IT unit of MTNL Mumbai and also oversaw the Internet Services unit. Mr. Shedha was also part of the group which planned and implemented the Broadband Network of MTNL Mumbai. He has been awarded Exceptional Contribution Award by Minister of Communications.
Go Back
Mr. P.K. Pande (DGM, MTNL)
Mr. P K Pande, has more than 15 years of experience in the Telecom Industry. He belongs to 1987 batch of Indian Telecommunication Services. He has been associated with Project Planning, Operations and Managements of wide variety of Telecom Transmission systems. In MTNL Mumbai he had been part of the group which started and operated Internet Services. He has also been part of the group which implemented Broadband and IPTV services of MTNL Mumbai.Go Back
