Talent is hidden everyone and there should be someone to groom it. The rural India has abundance of talent but does not have the know how of channelizing the talents one has. A son of a poor coolie who earns only so much that he can feed his family once, his son never dreamt that he would be sitting infront of computers and sending a mail to his chief trainer who has gone for a visit to the US regarding a query about the micro chip he has designed. But this is a fact and all this has been made possible by Karmic Training School and Research Centre Nesargi (Bailhongal taluk).
Nesargi a small village in Bailahongal taluk, 40 kms from Belagavi is no different from any other village in the vicinity. Fields, farmers working, cows, buffaloes grazing around and in the middle of all this you will find a group of 40 odd students who normally work when the village sleeps as power is available in the night designing CHIPS.
Yes CHIPS, not the potato ones but Integrated Chips used in mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. Amazed at this fact. The chips are being designed at the Karmic Training Centre (KTC) started by Dr.Shivaling S. Mahant-Shetti who has experience of 27 years in chip designing in Texas instruments USA.
All the students at the KTC are SSLC passed and who could not take up further education even though they were good at studies securing above 70% in academics. A majority of them are rural disadvantaged families of coolies etc.
The person behind setting up this Karmic Training Centre is Dr S S Mahant-Shetti. He holds 67 patents to his name and an experience of over 25 years in chip design.
Dr S S Mahant-Shetti from Bailhongal, with rich experience in research laboratories of Texas Instruments and in TestChip Technologies conducts the course and manages the Design Centre activities.
He founded Karnataka Microelectronic Design Centre Pvt Ltd (KARMIC) in Manipal which has 250 engineers designing chips. He has emerged as a team with in-depth acumen in Memory, High Performance Digital, Analog, RF and Mixed Signal domains. A unique feature of the Design Centre is that its members are drawn exclusively from KarMic Training Centre Pvt. Ltd., after a year of postgraduate training emphasizing strong team spirit as well as practical aspects of IC design.
Dr. Mahant-Shetti received the B. Tech (Hons) in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, in 1972. He earned Sc.M and Ph.D. degrees from Electrical Sciences from Brown University in 1975 and 1977 respectively. He worked in Astro-Med Division of Atlan Tol Industries, Warwick, RI. For five years. He joined the research laboratories at Texas Instruments, Dallas and worked for 16 years. He started the LinAsic design centre in Texas Instruments India, Bangalore in 1988-89, the first commercial chip design activity in India. Chip designing was not done those days. He learnt it the hard way. He did his schooling from Belagavi Military school.
Some of Mahant-Shetty’s Key Technical Contributions:
Long Range Opportunity -Silicon Transform Cameras, SPICE Model Verification for digital circuits, Definition of 0.6µm and 0.5µm technologies, Automatic testchip design, Several significant chip designs. As part of TestChip Technologies/Covalar, he started Karnataka Microelectronic (KarMic) Training / Design Centres in Manipal, Karnataka, India in 1999. KarMic is involved in Analog, mixed signal designs and boasts 98.2% retention.
Dr. Mahant-Shetty returned to Belagavi in 1999 and had to fulfill his social obligation. After following a lot of reconnaissance around, he set up a company in Manipal, where engineering graduates work on IT, KARMIC.
Shetty moved back to Nesargi two years back and started KTC.
The trainees at KTC Nesargi are taught same fundamentals taught to MTech students. Professionals teach them both in the classroom and computer labs. Special classes for English are the first so that they can easily read books and understand. In Nesargi the power availability in the night is more hence one can see these trainees working for a longer time in the night than in the day.
This is a great example of an out of a box thinking and also love for social obligation and repaying back to the society. Big books & people mention about corporate social responsibility but people like Dr. Mahant-Shetty need to be encouraged to carry their work ahead.
First Published in December 2009
Noble work Sir.
With the level of Intellect & knowledge Dr S S Mahant Shetti could have made Billions, had he set up a company in Bangalore,
But setting up Company & Training center in a remote village & sustaining is True CSR to the Society,
Request you to have many centers in other parts of Rural Karnataka then PAN India.
Dr S S Mahant Shetti’s vision is so much ahead of time (PM’s Make In India Campaign)
Are there currently any batch running ? Any idea
great work sir
great contribution . . . is it possible to meet sir any idea where he is usually available????
Awesome work dude this rock
Great work Sir..all the best.. 🙂
Makes me feel very proud… My senior in school at the Belgaum Military School. A true way of paying back to society and our roots.
Kudos Sirji.
This kind of gesture would definitely motivate the underprivileged students…This would indeed build the underdeveloped cities like bgm to grow at a faster pace…
The Phungsuk Wangdu of Belgaum , way to go Mr. Mahanthshetti , have been reading about you for a long time , what an amazing contribution !
@ Uday – you have our Belgaumite of the year already !
Nice one…
KarMic Is My Life
Karmic this is one Heaven
Sir…THANKS for the SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION towards the SOCIETY. You have shown that nothing is impossible. The YOUNG GENERATION like us should think on this very seriously as the society is waiting for our help/assistance.
Rgd-Chandru.
Great human being!!!
Gr8 work. Thank u Uday- allaboutbelgaum for bringing out the article of Jewel of Belgaum dist.]
May i get his cell number and postal address
Postal address: Opposite Old Gram Panchayat Office, Nesargi 591121. Dist Belgaum
Hats off… Dr Shetti. Thanks uday for sharing.
Wonderful work and really an out-of-the-box thinking. This reminds me Shivaram Karanth's novel which came out to be Kannada film Chigurida Kanasu.
Really great work by Dr S S Mahant- Shetti
A great service to the society is being rendered by Dr.Shivaling S. Mahant-Shetti. Good wishes!
Actually I came across this site searching for a microchip for cows as my ashram has many cows and I want to maintain their data in a scientific way.
Good wishes againfor the information.
Sir,
Thanks for your good wishes.
At one time IBM used to advertise their PCs with a program to increase yield of milk from cows.
Realy great work
It really feels good to live example of Selfless service in today's Era.
Also a sort of Motivation for all.
Congratulations Dr.Shetti
OK!
HATS OFF! __ Sir, you have taught us a very unique lesson on How to pay back our society? Thank You and All The Best for your future endeavours.
good job
HATS OFF!
Sir, you have taught us a very unique lesson on How to pay back our society? Thank You and All The Best for your future endeavours.
I wish Dr Shetti builds his next design centre at Belgaum , already Vavya labs is here , it can lead for Belgaum to become a VLSI design and manufacturing centre
Inspiring Stuff! Wonderful to read this piece Dr S S Mahant-Shetti! Great going!
Kudos to you Uday for publishing this!
gosh !!! this reminds me of hindi movie Swades Mahant Shetty sir you are GREAT
hatts off………..
Great work by mahant shetty…..
our grand pa(mahatma Gandhi) said " if educated yougsters stays back in rural area to do something for our nation then this country will shine on world map" n mahant shetty did it…
Kudos to Dr.Shivaling S. Mahant-Shetti!
Very inspiring and heart touching – “genuiness is a quality to be treasured more than any treasure in the world” How true is this?
Regards and Best Wishes to KARMIC, KTC and Dr Shivaling’s team!
Dr. Neeta Baporikar