Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, better known as Dr Sam Pitroda, born in:- Titlagarh, Orissa, is an inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. Currently:- chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission, he is also widely considered to have been responsible for India's communications revolution. He is the Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited, an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) initiative. He holds many key technology patents, has been involved in several startups, and lectures extensively around the world on management, governance and the implications of communications and information technology.
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, his biography, 'Sam Pitroda: A Biography' was published, and became a bestseller on The Economic Times list for five weeks. Mr. Pitroda has lived mainly in Chicago, Illinois since 1964, with his wife and two children.
Early life:
He was born in India in Titilagarh, Orissa.His parents hailed from Gujarat and migrated to Orissa. They were deeply influenced by Gandhi and his philosophy. Sam Pitroda and his brother were sent to Gujarat to imbibe Gandhian philosophy. Sam completed his schooling from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat and completed his Masters in Physics and Electronics from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. After completing a Masters in Physics from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara he went to the US and did his Masters in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s he was involved in the cutting edge technology research work in telecommunications and handheld computing. He is particularly known for having introduced microprocessors in telephone switches leading to early digital switching. His invention of the Electronic Diary in 1975 is now regarded as one of the earliest examples of hand-held computing. With over 100 patents to his credit Pitroda has been a leading name in telecommunications and information technology for over three decades.
He went on to found Wescom Switching. Wescom was acquired by Rockwell International, where Mr. Pitroda became a Vice President.
In 1983, he also designed his own computer-themed card game called Compucards which used binary numbers (1, 2, 4, 8...) instead of decimal and had a computer bug as the joker. The equivalent of a king in a regular deck of cards was the 'Programmer' that bore an uncanny resemblance to Mr. Pitroda himself.
During his four decades as an engineer Mr. Pitroda has been involved filing 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.
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