Dr. T. S. R. Prasada Rao, a passionate champion for ADI Analytics right from its inception in 2009, was officially Senior Executive Advisor but guided and mentored the firm like a Chairman. On his passing, Uday Turaga, Founder & CEO, ADI Analytics wrote this tribute to Dr. Prasada Rao that appeared in our newsletter for April 2022.
This newsletter reaches thousands every month but one reader who would open every single edition, skim through each post, and then painstakingly forward it on to dozens within his vast network, was my father and ADI Senior Executive Advisor, Dr. T.S.R. Prasada Rao. Today’s newsletter will, unfortunately, go unread on Dr. Prasada Rao’s devices as he passed on April 7, 2022 in Hyderabad at the age of 83.
Right from its inception when I was the only employee, Dr. Prasada Rao was ADI’s most passionate champion whose indefatigable optimism saw nothing but success and glory for us. One of the first questions he’d ask every morning when I’d usually call him on my commute was, “Any news from ADI?” He celebrated every project we won, followed up with me on proposals that I’d forgotten about, ask and offer new ideas to grow, inquire about the different ADI colleagues he’d met or knew of, and constantly congratulate us on the smallest of things.
At the same time, Dr. Prasada Rao constantly challenged me and ADI to strive for more in a way that was inspiring, motivating, and encouraging. For someone who was a scientist for most of his career, Dr. Prasada Rao never forgot to ask me at the end of a financial quarter how ADI did. Or push me to hire someone when it wasn’t clear if we had the work for them. And keep reminding that I had to be pragmatic, delegate more, and lead more.
Innovation in energy and India were his passions, and Dr. Prasada Rao kept asking how a new trend that we’d reported on would impact India or could be advanced faster with new technology. He never tired of asking who from India was at one of the larger energy conferences, and if I’d reached out to them. A lot of that prodding and pushing rubbed off on us with excellent yield even if we saw little wisdom in pursuing it initially.
Although we never called him that, if ADI had had a Chairman, it was Dr. Prasada Rao. He leaves ADI and me with an impossibly big vacuum to fill but we celebrate and hope to draw on the inspirational life that he lived as we move forward.
– Uday Turaga
Learn more about Dr. Prasada Rao
- A tribute to Dr. Prasada Rao by Dr. S. Sivaram published in Current Science
- A life of energy(tic) contribution
- Dr. Prasada Rao awarded the Petrotech Lifetime Achievement Award with Dan Yergin
- Tributes on LinkedIn
- Dr. Prasada Rao honored with Indian National Academy of Engineering’s Lifetime Contribution Award
- Distilling discoveries to dividends
