Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda also known as Sam Pitroda is an Indian inventor, telecommunication engineer and entrepreneur. He was born in Titlagarh in the eastern Indian state of Odisha to a Gujarati family. He was also an advisor to the PM during Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
Profile Summary
| Full Name/Stage Name | Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda/Sam Pitroda |
| Gender | Male |
| Place of Birth | Titlagarh in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, India. |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Indian Inventor, Telecommunication Engineer and Entrepreneur. |
| Net Worth | Couple of millions of dollars. |
Early life and Education of Sam Pitroda
Sam Pitroda was born in Titlagarh, Odisha, India to Gujarati’s parents. He had seven siblings and is third oldest among them. The family was deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy. Consequently, Pitroda and his brother were sent to Gujarat to imbibe Gandhian philosophy. He completed his schooling from Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujarat and completed his master’s degree in physics and electronics from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara. After completing his master’s degree in physics, he went to the United States in 1964 and obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.
Career Choices of Sam Pitroda
In 1966 he went to work for GTE in Chicago. He is regarded as one of the earliest pioneers of hand-held computing because of his invention of the Electronic Diary in 1975. In 1974, Pitroda joined Wescom Switching which was one of the first digital switching companies. He developed the 580 DSS switch, over nearly four years. It was released in 1978. Wescom was acquired by Rockwell International in 1980, where Pitroda became vice president. During his four decades as an engineer, Pitroda filed scores of patents in telecommunications. The latest set of patents relate to mobile phone-based transaction technology, both financial and non-financial.
He spent nearly a decade with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as the 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, Market, 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.
He is living in Chicago, Illinois since 1964 with his wife and two children and also in Delhi.
Sam Pitroda Net Worth
Sam Pitroda net worth based on a recent study by Forbes: states that he is worth couple of millions of dollars.
Conclusion
In 1993, Pitroda helped to establish (with Darshan Shankar) the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Tradition and The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and Technology near Bangalore in India. The foundation promotes Ayurveda, India’s traditional medicinal knowledge. The two founders were honored in 2003 by Columbia University
