Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda popularly known as Sam Pitroda (born 4 May 1942) is a telecom engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. He was born in Titilagarh, Odisha, India. In 1964, he traveled to Chicago to study electrical engineering.
After many years Pitroda visited India and could not make a phone call to his wife. So he returned to India and spent nearly a decade with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as leader of an effort to build an Indian information industry. The task was to extend digital telecommunications to every corner of the country, including remote villages, like the one of his birth. Pitroda launched the Center for the Development of Telematics (C-DOT), and served as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Technology Missions related to water, literacy, immunization, oil seeds, telecom, and dairy. He is also the founding Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission.
Pitroda returned to India a second time in 2004 to focus on building knowledge institutions and infrastructure. Pitroda served as chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (2005–2009), a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, to give policy recommendations for improving knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. During its term, the National Knowledge Commission submitted around 300 recommendations on 27 focus areas.
Pitroda also founded the National Innovation Council (2010), and served as the Advisor to the Prime Minister with rank of a cabinet minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation, to help democratize information.
Pitroda founded and served as Chairman of C-SAM. The company maintains its headquarters in Chicago with offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Pune, Mumbai and Vadodara. Pitroda holds around 100 technology patents, has been involved in several start-ups and lectures extensively.
Pitroda has also started several businesses as a serial entrepreneur (Wescom Switching, Ionics, MTI, Martek, WorldTel, C-SAM, etc.) in the US and Europe.
He has also served as an advisor to the United Nations and in 1992, his biography Sam Pitroda: A Biography was published and became a bestseller on The Economic Times list for five weeks.[citation needed]
Many argue that, as technology Advisor to the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi in 1984, Pitroda both heralded the telecom revolution in India, and made a strong case for using technology for the benefit of society through missions on telecommunications, literacy, dairy, water, immunization and oil seeds[citation needed]. The claim that Pitroda played a major role in ushering in the Telecom Revolution in India has been disputed in an article by Rajeev Mantri and Harsh Gupta published by LiveMint.
He has lived in Chicago, Illinois since 1964 with his wife and two children and also in Delhi.
Awards
Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and Management Services, 2000, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to telecommunication and harnessing it for social and economic transformation of developing countries
Dataquest gave Pitroda a lifetime achievement award in 2002.
In 2008, Pitroda was elected as a world prominent leader by the World Network of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferred the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award to Pitroda in Geneva on 17 May 2011. He was awarded in recognition of his dedication to promoting Information, communication and technology as a means of providing a better life for humanity and social and economic empowerment. He was the first Indian to receive this award.
In May 2010, the University of Illinois at Chicago college of medicine presented him an honorary degree.
Sambalpur University honored Pitroda with D.Sc. on its 23rd convocation on 14 July 2010.
The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 2009 for his contribution to Science and Engineering.
The Skoch Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 for ushering in the telecom and IT revolution in India.
Andhra University honored Pitroda with D.Sc in 2008.
Award for Public Service in the Field of Telecommunications, IEEE Communications Society, 2007, for exceptional contributions in developing indigenous systems and telecommunications infrastructure in India
He was felicitated on 31 March 2009 by Akhila Bharatiya Viswakarma Mahasabha (ABVM) for service to the Viswakarma community, in the presence of Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt. Shiela Dixit.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Award, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2011, for his outstanding contribution to improving life in rural communities through information and communication technologies. Sam Pitroda is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award.
He addressed the 2nd Indian Student Parliament in 2012.
(Ref.:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pitroda )