Sam Pitroda

Satyanarayan Pitroda popularly known as Sam Pitroda is an Indian innovator, entrepreneur and policymaker. He is the founder & CEO of C-SAM, Inc. The company maintains its headquarters in Chicago with offices in London, Tokyo, Mumbai and Vadodara. Following the development of core technologies in the U.S. and Europe, C-SAM's development centers in India now focus on innovation, customization and cost effective deployment for its customers.Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s Sam Pitroda was involved in cutting edge technology research work in telecommunications and hand-held computing. He is widely regarded as one of the earliest pioneers of hand-held computing because of his invention of the Electronic Diary in 1975.

In 1974, Sam Pitroda founded a company, Wescom Switching which was one of the first digital switching companies in the world. He developed a revolutionary new system called 580 DSS switch, which he spent nearly four years perfecting. Thus, in 1978, it was released to the world and it became an instant hit becoming one of the most successful systems in the market. Wescom was eventually acquired by Rockwell International, where Pitroda became the Vice President. During his four decades as an engineer, Mr. Pitroda has filed scores of patents in telecommunications. The latest set of patents relate to mobile phone based transaction technology which cover the entire spectrum of transactions, both financial and non-financial, via mobile phones.

In 1984, Mr. Pitroda was invited to return to India by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. On his return, he started the Center for Development of Telematics C-DOT, an autonomous telecom R&D organization. He had previously become a naturalized US citizen, and renounced his US citizenship to take Indian citizenship again in order to work in the Government. In 1987, he became advisor to Mrs. Gandhi's successor, Rajiv Gandhi and was responsible for shaping India's foreign and domestic telecommunications policies.

In 1987 during his tenure as advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda headed six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy and oilseeds. He is also the founder and first chairman of India’s Telecom Commission.

Mr. Pitroda has been responsible for shaping India’s foreign and domestic telecommunications policies. He is largely considered to be responsible for the telecommunication revolution in India and specifically, the ubiquitous, yellow-signed Public Call Offices (PCO) that quickly brought cheap and easy domestic and international public telephones all over the country.

In the 1990s Sam Pitroda returned to Chicago to manage his business interests. When the United Progressive Alliance government came to power following the 2004 General Elections, the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh invited him to head the National Knowledge Commission of India.

In July 2009, the Government of India invited Mr. Sam Pitroda to head an expert committee on ICT in Railways. In October 2009, Sam Pitroda was appointed as Advisor to PM of India (Dr. Manmohan Singh) on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations with the rank of Cabinet Minister.

In the Indian Railways Budget 2012, Sam Pitroda was announced to head Railway modernization plan.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferred the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award to Mr. Sam 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 is the first Indian to receive this prestigious award.

He received Padma Bhushan in 2009 by the Government of India for his contribution to Science and Engineering. He also received ‘The Skoch Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award’ in 2009 for ushering in the telecom and IT revolution in India.