Madhukar Thote Passes Away

Pune, January 3, 2024: Pune’s Madhukar Yadav Thote (93) recently passed away due to old age. He has played a crucial role in bringing the color TV transmission to India. He was posted as the Engineer-in-Charge of Doordarshan, Delhi in the year 1980 when the broadcasting was in black and white. 

He then started working on color transmission technology. After two years of research, experiments and trials, the era of color TV transmission started in 1982 in India under the able technical leadership of Thote. The first official color transmission was of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August 1982.

Apart from this major contribution, Madhukar Thote has been instrumental in setting up transmission centers for All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan across the country. He was on deputation to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) from 1976 to 1978 and was with the United Nations as Project Director in Africa in 1979 for the establishment of a Telecommunication Institute. 

After retiring as a chief engineer of Doordarshan and AIR in 1988, Thote was associated with the Savitribai Phule Pune University for 22 years as Head of Dept. of Communication Studies and Director of EMMRC. He was the Chairman of The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication (IETE), Pune Chapter.

Madhukar Yadav Thote is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.