Father Of Indian Telecom Revolution

Sam Pitroda

Early Life
Sam Pitroda was born in a large family of seven brothers and sisters in Titlagarh,Orissa on 4th May 1942. His father though not highly educated but believed in educating his children. He did masters in Physics and Electronics from Baroda. Ironically this father of Indian Telecom Revolution first used telephone only after moving to the United States Of America to study Electrical Engineering.

CAREER
Pitroda has an opportunity to work on Digital Switching technology at GTE inc.,Chicago USA. After working in GTE for 10 years he started a telephone exchange company called Wescom Switching in 1974. Later he sold Wescom Switching to Rockwell for 10 million dollars. In 1984,Sam Pitroda visited Saudi American Bank in Jeddah and introduced himself as a venture capitalist.

PITRODA IN INDIA!!!

His opportunities came to transform his dreams into reality, when the then Indian prime minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi made him his chief scientific adviser and requested him to start a new public venture called Center For The Devolopment of Telematics (C-Dot). It started exporting telephonic equipment in bulk to countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda. It sold its design license to about 20 different Indian equipment manufacturers.

DEVELOPMENT IN TELECOM SECTOR

He successfully embarked upon the creation and launch of Rural Automatic Telephone exchanges (RAX) designed and manufactures by him and his team of Indian engineers.
As a result, about 40,000 exchanges totaling about 20 million telephone lines were installed in India. All these exchanges were equipped with SS7 Intelligent Networking Signaling Systems-the systems which are used to find out if a number is busy or available and to check up the database of telephone numbers.

Sam Pitroda became the chairman of National Technology Mission during Rajiv Gandhis government and thus the first chairman of Indias Telecom Commission.

PCOS
Pitroda said that we must work towards cent percent literacy, ten million new jobs per year, and ensuring that the economy at ten percent a year. Pitrodas tenacity helped create the concept and technology behind the network of STD/PCO. Towards this need,during the 20th century,600,000 booths were established all over India.

 He designed a simple device which displays phone numbers,call costs and duration of the call and generates an instant bill at the users end. Lets tap the developments in information technology and expedite the process of nation-building using these tools,was the call of Sam Pitroda.

 India has huge resource base computer professionals . IT solutions can help us tackle problems in core areas of governance, health, education etc.. IT can be used to simplyfy life and enable people to get things done with less hassles. Pitroda said that our national agenda must reflect the multiple dreams and cultural diversity of India and every citizen must work towards this common agenda. We must encourage innovation and encourage people to think differently and give wild ideas a hearing", said Pitroda.

ICCS
With ICC, the access to computers will be available for public use, which will pave way for governance. Indians are highly talented in mathematics, and we have a large pool of software talent. In his words We do not need experts to tell us what the problems are . We need experts who will come up with solutions and the will to make them work

 In 1995,Pitroda founded World Tel-a global organisation to develop telecom infrastructure in third world countries and became the CEO and subsequently the chairman. He was also an advisor to Kofi Annan, the United National General Secretary on the ICT Advisory Committee.

AWARDS
He received Indias National Citizens award. In 1993,he was awarded the IIT Alumni Medal. 1995 the International Distinguished Leadership Award. In 2002,he was presented the IT Lifetime Achievement Award.

 Pitroda is currently working on an electronic wallet. The future lies in electronic payment systems.The payment systems that exist are obsolete.