Sam Pitroda Age, Wife, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Real Name	Satyan Gangaram Pitroda
Nickname/Title	Sam, Telecom Czar
Profession(s)	Telecom Engineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur
Famous For	• Being the technical advisor to the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi • Helping India's Telecommunications System
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	5' 6" (168 cm)
Weight (approx.)	75 Kg (165 lbs)
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	White
Personal Life
Date of Birth	4 May 1942 (Monday)
Age (as of 2024)	82 Years
Birthplace	Titilagarh, Orissa, British India
Zodiac sign	Taurus
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Titilagarh, Odisha, India
School	A school in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat, India
Colleges/Universities	• Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Gujarat • Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA
Educational Qualification(s)	• A Master degree in Physics and Electronics • A Master degree in Electrical Engineering
Political Inclination	Indian National Congress (INC)
Hobbies	Travelling
Controversies	• Statements on 26/11 attack and Pulwama attack In March 2019, he sparked controversy by saying that Pakistan can not be blamed for 26/11 attack and Pulwama attack. He said, "Eight people (26/11 terrorists) come and do something, you don't jump on the entire nation. Naive to assume that just because some people came here and attacked, every citizen of that nation is to be blamed. I don't believe in that way." On Balakot Air Strike, he questioned, "If they (IAF) killed 300, it’s ok. All I am saying is - can you give me more facts and prove it?” He further added, "I would like to know a little more because I read reports in the New York Times and other newspapers. Did we really attack? We really killed 300 people? I don’t know that. As a citizen, I am entitled to know and if I ask it is my duty to ask, that doesn’t mean I’m not a nationalist, That doesn’t mean I am on this side or that side. We need to know the facts. If you say 300 people were killed, I need to know that" [1]News18 • Racist remarks ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Sam Pitroda attracted controversy after he compared Indians in the East with the Chinese while those in the South with Africans during an interview. [2]India Today On 8 May 2024, he resigned as the Indian Overseas Congress chief over his controversial statements. [3]The Hindu On 26 June 2024, Congress reinstated him as Indian Overseas Congress Chairman.
Awards/Honours	• Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and Management Services (2000) • Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) • Doctorate of Science (D.Sc) by Andhra University (2008) • Padma Bhushan by the government of India (2009) • Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Illinois at Chicago (2010) • World Telecommunication and Information Society Award to Pitroda in Geneva (2011)
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Married
Family
Wife/Spouse	Anjana (Marriage: 1966)
Children	Son- Salil Daughter- Rajal
Siblings	7
Favourites
Leader	Mahatma Gandhi
Politician	Rajiv Gandhi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sam Pitroda

• His family is deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and his philosophy.

• When he was a child, he along with his brother was sent to Gujarat to learn Gandhian Philosophy.

• When he was 22 years old, he moved to the United States for higher education and worked for GTE (General Telephone & Electronics Corporation) in Chicago in 1966.
  

  Sam Pitroda during his college time

• Pitroda joined Wescom Switching in 1974, which was one of the first digital switching companies. Over the period of the next four years, he developed the 580 DSS switches.

• When Rockwell International acquired Wescom, Pitroda became the Vice President of it.

• In 1984, he was called back to India by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to work for the Center for Development of Telematics C-DOT, an autonomous telecom R&D organization. To work for the organization, he renounced his American citizenship.
  

  Sam Pitroda during C-DAC program

• Almost a decade, Pitroda spent with the former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and has also served as a technical advisor to him on various technology missions related to literacy, water, oilseed, immunization, telecom, dairy, etc.
  

  Sam Pitroda with Rajiv Gandhi

• Pitroda is also a founding chairman of India’s Telecom Commission which he founded in 1987.

• In 1990, he suffered a heart attack and underwent successful surgery.

• In the 1990s, he came back to the United States to continue his business interests and in 1995, he became the first chairman of WorldTel, a part of an International Telecommunications Union initiative.

• In 2004, when Indian National Congress came to power, the then Prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, invited him to head the National Knowledge Commission of India.
  

  Sam Pitroda with Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi

• In 2009, Pitroda was again invited by the Indian Government to head an expert committee on ICT in Railways.

• He was appointed the Chairman of the National Innovation Council in August 2010.

• In 2013, the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, appointed him as the chancellor of the Central University of Rajasthan.

• Pitroda has also been the Chairman of some NGOs such as The Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI), India FoodBanking Network, People for Global Transformation, Action For India, and many others.

• Pitroda has authored some books; IEEE Transactions on Communications, Exploding Freedom: Roots in Technology, Foundation for the Future: Human Resource Development, Development of Gujarat: People’s Perceptions, Vision, Values, & Velocity, March of Mobile Money: The Future of Lifestyle Management, and Dreaming Big: My Journey to Connect India, Penguin India, 2015.

• An author named, Mayank Chhaya has written his biography, Sam Pitroda: A Biography. The book was on the list of the best seller books in India.
  

  Biography of Sam Pitroda

• Pitroda is also an artist, a painter. His work has been shown in an expedition in Paris, France.
  

  Paintings of Sam Pitroda

• Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he hit the headlines for his advocacy of the inheritance tax in India. While speaking to media persons, Sam Pitroda termed the inheritance tax, as practiced in the United States, as an ‘interesting idea’ and said that there should be a greater discussion on this in India. Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi countered Pitroda’s statement and said that Congress was planning to redistribute the nation’s wealth to minorities, if voted in power.