A.S. Rao – scientist, teacher, entrepreneur

A.S. Rao’s greatest achievement was in leading his team in bringing to a critical stage APSRA, India’s and Asia’s first nuclear reactor

A.S. Rao did M.Sc (physics) from the Benarus Hindu University where Sarvepally Radhakrishna was the Vice-Chancellor.

Ayyagari Sambasiva Rao or A.S. Rao, as the founder-managing director of Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL), brought instrumentation technology to global standards. His first milestone was leading his team in bringing APSRA, India’s and Asia’s first nuclear reactor to a critical stage.

Born in a poor peasant’s family to Venkatachalam and Sundaramma at Mogallu village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, he did M.Sc (physics) from the Benarus Hindu University where Sarvepally Radhakrishna was the Vice-Chancellor. The latter recommended him for higher studies through Tata scholarship and he went to Stanford University in US to take master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1946.

Dr. Rao returned to India and met Homi J. Bhabha at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore (where he was doing work on cosmic rays and high altitude research) and concentrated in the design and development of electronic instrumentation. Bhabha took him to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) offering the post of reader, where he specialised in electronics instrumentation.

A milestone In 1953, he joined the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay, and was entrusted with the task of designing and building APSRA (‘Water Nymph’ in Sanskrit). Led by Bhabha, Dr. A.S. Rao, N.B. Prasad, Raja Ramannna and L.M. Singhvi worked on the new reactor which became critical on August 4, 1956 within a year, one of the greatest achievements of post-Independent India.

The reactor was an excellent experimental facility for our scientists to study the effects of nuclear radiation, production of radio-isotopes and for demonstration of their application in medical and industrial fields. The achievement was promptly announced by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament.

Dr. A.S. Rao was part of the Bhabha Committee, which provided a blueprint for development of electronics industry, and accelerated establishment of Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL). Vikram Sarabhai was the Chairman and Dr. A.S. Rao was Managing Director when ECIL was started in 1967. He was the MD for 11 years and also won several awards including the Padmashri, Padma Bhushan, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar award, etc. He died on October 31, 2003 when he was 89 years old.

(The author is a friend of Dr. Rao and also wrote a book on him titled ‘The Man with a vision’ in 1997 besides several articles in various publications)