A visionary technocrat (1929-2015)
Kunnath Puthiyaveetil Padmanabhan Nambiar, known as K.P.P. Nambiar, who passed away recently, was one of India’s finest technocrats who made significant contributions in the field of industrial development and technology. He founded and nurtured many institutions, and the Government of India recognised his contribution by awarding him a Padma Bhushan in the year 2006.
Nambiar graduated in Physics from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, University of London, and one of his earliest assignments was with the Texas Instruments in the U.S. Heeding a clarion call from the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Indian technocrats working abroad to return to India, Nambiar relocated to India. Here, he joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and thereafter, the Bharat Electronics Ltd., where as part of the Crystals Division, he was responsible for the introduction of the first communication crystals facility in the country. His technological expertise attracted attention and he joined the private sector Tata Electric as the General Manager of NELCO.
At Tata Power Company, Nambiar set up the Industrial Electronics Research and Development Lab. Nambiar then accepted an invitation from the government of his home state Kerala, shrugging off reservations of Doubting Thomases who felt that he was making a mistake in leaving Tatas, the corporate giant. Nambiar took office as the first Chairman of the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation (KELTRON), an electronics manufacturing firm. He was instrumental in bringing Kannur city into the limelight as one of the premier centres for electronics development, and soon the Keltron story was replicated elsewhere with great success. He also pioneered the setting up of women’s cooperatives to manufacture consumer durables under the Keltron brand and this provided employment opportunities to hundreds of housewives and enabled many of them from the lower income bracket to earn a living. In 1985, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi handpicked him to head the state owned Indian Telephone Industries Ltd., as its Chairman and Managing Director and just a year later, Rajiv Gandhi who took over as Prime Minister after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, appointed him as the Secretary, Department of Electronics, GOI (Govt.of India). During his stint at the Department of Electronics, Nambiar won encomiums and was hailed as the architect behind several innovative initiatives like C–DAT, STPI, CEDTI and VLSI.
After his retirement in 1989, Nambiar moved on to fresh pastures and more assignments the earliest of which was his appointment as a Honorary Special Advisor to the Government of Kerala, where he was involved in the drawing up of a blueprint for a Techno Park in Trivandrum. This Park today serves as a hub for all the IT institutions operating in and around Kerala.
Never one to rest on his laurels, the renowned technocrat continued to serve as an industry mentor and institution builder and also took on teaching assignments at IIT Delhi in the Electrical Engineering department.
He also served as the Chairman of the Board at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. Nambiar remained active almost till 2002 when he suffered a stroke. Acknowledged by the industry as a man with the Midas touch, Nambiar was the recipient of a number of honours and awards. Nambiar will be remembered as one of the stalwarts of the electronic technology movement in the country and as one whose brilliance in the field touched every single institution of which he was a part. His protégés have inherited his mantle and now occupy pivotal positions in several institutions spread across the length and breadth of the country.