First Principle

The last two decades have witnessed an enormous growth with regard to ap­ plications of information theoretic framework in areas of physical, biological, engineering and even social sciences. In particular, growth has been spectac­ ular in the field of information technology,soft computing,nonlinear systems and molecular biology. Claude Shannon in 1948 laid the foundation of the field of information theory in the context of communication theory. It is in­ deed remarkable that his framework is as relevant today as was when he 1 proposed it. Shannon died on Feb 24, 2001. Arun Netravali observes "As if assuming that inexpensive, high-speed processing would come to pass, Shan­ non figured out the upper limits on communication rates.