Kunnath Puthiyaveettil Padmanabhan Nambiar DIC (Lond), FIEE (Lond), CEngg (Lond.), more popularly known as K.P.P. Nambiar (15 April 1929 – 30 June 2015), was an Indian industrialist and technocrat, known for his work in the field of industrial development and technology. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by Government of India for his contributions to the field of technology in 2006. Career Nambiar walked 8 km every day to Taliparamba's Moothedeth High School. He graduated from Pachayyappa's College in Madras where he studied physics. In 1951, he joined the Imperial College of Science & Technology, University of London for higher studies in Transistors and Semi-Conductors. Nambiar started his career as a research scholar in semiconductor technology at Imperial College from 1954 to 1957. After graduation, he worked for Texas Instruments, USA. In 1963 he returned to India, as a part of the scientist pool scheme initiated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to bring back talented Indians working abroad. He was a "scientist pool officer" under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. He taught modern semiconductor electronics in the Electrical Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, in New Delhi. Nambiar joined Philips India as Manager of Projects in 1964. In 1967, he joined Bharat Electronics Limited as Joint Head of the Piezo Electric Crystal Division in Bangalore, where he set up the first communication crystals factory in India during his brief stay there. In 1967, while at Tata Electric Companies, he set up the first applied electronic research and development centre for industrial electronics in India. In late 1967, Nambiar was also the general manager of National Radio & Electronics Company, in Tata's consumer electronics division. He was instrumental in introducing a number of new products under such as speed control for AC and DC motors, static inverters and converters, calculators, electronic clocks, and display systems. Silicon transistor radios were introduced for the first time in the country in 1968 by NELCO during this period. In the early 1970s, he received an invitation from the Kerala government to set up an electronics manufacturing firm. Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron) was formed with Nambiar as its first chairman and managing director. He remained in that position until 1983 when he was made the executive chairman until his retirement in 1985. In order to have a robust Research and development to support indigenous manufacturing he set up Electronics Research