Dr TH Chowdary bags Padma Shri from government

NEW DELHI: Dr Tripuraneni Hanuman Chowdary has received Padma Shri this year, the fourth highest civilian award in India, who had contributed the most to the telecom revolution and IT development in country.

Founder of the Center for Telecommunications Management and Studies (CTMS), Dr Chowdary, popularly known as T H Chowdhary, currently serves as non-executive independent director at Softsol India Ltd.

He was the founding CMD of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), Advisor to TCS and IT advisor to the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He is Chairman of Pragna Bharthi of Andhra Pradesh.

He was the man who initiated restructuring of Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Dr Chowdary founded the Centre for Telecommunications Management and Studies in 1989, as a not-for-profit-society to wage the intellectual campaign for demonopolisation of and competition in Indian telecoms. He wrote the draft National Telecom Policy, in 1989.

He drafted the National Telecom Policy (NTP) as early as in 1989, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Bill, which has become the basis for the final TRAI Act.

He has been responsible for the birth of the telecom manufacturing industry in the private sector. And he is also considered as the spiritual father of all the private sector telecom companies in India.