The eclectic innovator: Sam Pitroda's unconventional roadmap to success
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On the 40th anniversary this year of the Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the pioneering Indian telecom institution, spare a thought for its zesty founder who is still making waves, though perhaps not quite in the way he would like to. In the evolutionary history of Indian technology and innovation, Satyanarayan (Sam) Gangaram Pitroda’s status as India’s original tech guru is secure, though he doesn’t get enough credit for the telecom revolution that has seen the country’s teledensity jump from around 2% in the 1980s to over 90% today.
His fascinating journey from Titlagarh in Odisha to the powerways of India started with C-DoT which Pitroda set up in 1984 at the behest of the young and still unsullied prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. By then, the man with the wild mane had established himself in the US telecom industry. After studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, in 1966 he went to work for GTE, then the largest independent telephone company in the US.
A successful career followed and in 1975, he filed a patent for an electronic diary that could track appointments and remind users of upcoming events. On one of his visits home, he was confronted with the depressing reality of India’s pathetic telecom infrastructure. With what he called a mix of “ignorance and arrogance", Pitroda decided he would do something about it.
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