Elimination of Electronics and Metals From Telecommunications by 2000 AD

Abstract

During the last decade, it had become abundantly clear that the exclusive use of photonics for telecommunications, viz fixed point to point communication of all forms of information would provide vastly improved and more reliable facilities at less cost with reduced maintenance problems. A beginning had been made in utilising the optical fibre but with lots of electronics to utilise photonics. During 1988–1991, applications of materials sciences and engineering have provided pure silical glass lines on which a pulse can be transmitted to unlimited distances and in local area networks by using optical fibre broadband amplifiers. Development of devices like transphasers and seeds, improved solid state lasers, low loss couplers, etc, have made it possible to embark on entirely photonic links in telecommunications.

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S V C Aiya

S V C Aiya was educated at the Esplanade High school Bombay, Wilson College Bombay and Gonville and Caius College. Cambridge. He had a first class career at both Bombay and Cambridge and won prizes and scholarships. He was, for sometime, a member of the Bombay Education Service Class 1 holding posts like Head of the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering and Principalships of Engineering Colleges. He held several important positions including that of Dean in Bombay, Poona and Ahmedabad universities and was responsible for starting BE, ME, PhD programmes in his subject at Poona where he set up the laboratories needed from scratch. His research interests have been on Lightning and Radio noise and he was known internationally for his work. He had lectured on this subject in several universities and research establishments in several countries. He had continuously taken a keen interest in education at all levels including engineering education and had written profusely on the subject. In this area, he was best known for his technological forecasting and his forward look had attracted attention in countries like the USA and UK. After leaving the Bombay Education Service, he was Head of the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and later, the first whole time Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi. He was a distinguished Fellow and Past President of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, New Delhi, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers India, a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London. He was an honorary Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and a National fellow in Education. He had served on several committees of the Government of India and the erstwhile Government of Bombay. He had travelled widely and lectured in several universities in several countries. He had been consulted by overseas industries on tropicalisation and design improvements.