IndiaPost.com - Father of India's telecom revolution

India Post News Service

The name, Sam Pitroda is symbolic of the yellow phone booths all across India. Yes, it was mainly because of the efforts of this inventor, technocrat, and social thinker that telecom revolution started in India. It is interesting to know that Sam Pitroda first used a telephone only after moving to the US! Sam Pitroda has a definite vision to use technology for the benefit and betterment of society.

Along with being a pioneer in telecom, Sam Pitroda has made strong case for food, clean water, and adequate shelter for the unprivileged sections. Through his efforts, Sam Pitroda has brought telephones to some of the world's previously isolated regions. In the field of telecom, Sam's emphasis was on accessibility rather than density.

By providing public access to telephones, Sam Pitroda revolutionized the state of telecommunications in India. Currently, Pitroda is the Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited, an International Telecom Union (ITU) initiative. He is also the Chairman and Founder of Sevend high-technology. Sam Pitroda is also the founding Chairman of a non-profit Foundation for' Revitalization of Local Health Traditions in India.

As a result of his pioneering works, he holds more than 50 patents and has lectured extensively on Telecom, Technology and Development, in almost all parts of the world. He has also featured in several newspapers, magazines, radio and TV programs. Satyanarayan Gangarm Pitroda was born in Titlagarh, Orissa, India.

He did his schooling at Anand Vallabh Vidyalaya in Gujarat and Masters in Physics and Electronics in Baroda. In 1964, Sam went to the US and did his Masters in Electrical Engineering in Chicago. Thereafter he worked at GTE and formed Wescom Switching, Inc. In the year 1984, Sam Pitroda returned to India and founded the Center for Development of Telematics (CDAC) and later became advisor to the PM of India on National Technology Missions.

Pitroda lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife Anu, son Salil and daughter Rajal. Sam Pitroda's reputation as an internationally respected telecom inventor, management guru and entrepreneur has been built over the past 38 years in the telecom and IT industries the world over. His experience straddles corporate, technological, management and sociological worlds.

He is best known for revolutionizing telecommunication during his tenure as Chief Technology Advisor to then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. By introducing small, rural exchanges to India, he brought the telephone to some of the world's most previously isolated region. He also made the case that accessibility, not density, should be the focus of the implementation of telecom.

The bright yellow STD PCO boxes that you encounter in India are a manifestation of his efforts? Pitroda revolutionized the state of telecommunications in India. And provided a model for other developing nations. He is currently Founder and CEO of C-Sam Inc. An inventor, a technocrat, and a social thinker, Sam is a genuine visionary.

Apart from his immense tangible work in telecommunications, Pitroda also shifted paradigms: He made the case that telecommunications - along with substantial food, clean water, and shelter - were a fundamental component in the process of modernization.

He is the founder and CEO of C-SAM, Inc, which has developed a suite of patented mobile transaction technology called OneWallet. The company has offices in London, Tokyo, and offshore development centres in India in Mumbai and Vadodara. He has served as an advisor to the United Nations and in 1992, 'Sam Pitroda:

A Biography' was published, and became a bestseller on The Economic Times list for five weeks.