Feature
May 12, 2010
India's Idea Man
Sam Pitroda doesn’t claim to be an academic. He has no interest in writing lengthy papers or conducting empirical studies. His job is to think outside the box, to dream up innovative ways to expand education and telecommunication in India, and then inspire others to carry his nation toward a prosperous future.
“I’m not a professor, not an intellectual,” he said to begin a Harris School lecture on May 3 to a student audience. “You’ll have to put up with my way of doing things.”
Pitroda is currently advisor to India’s Prime Minister on information, infrastructure, and innovation issues. Dressed in a pink shirt and a pink tie, with a mane of white hair and a night-black goatee, Pitroda told the story of his immigration to the United States from India in 1964, how he became a self-made millionaire by age 38 after striking gold in the telecommunications industry, and returned home after 20 years with a passion for using his seasoned acumen to give the country “a new sense of direction.”
Pitroda believed that technology would lead to social transformation in India by encouraging transparency, networking, and accessibility to information, which are all necessary for future economic development. In 1984, he approached then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi with an idea for expanding the country’s communication infrastructure. Pitroda was given $36 million, 36 months, and 500 young engineers to modernize India’s telecommunications grid. When he started, only 3 percent of India’s 600,000 villages had access to telephones; today, there are some 600 million phones, including ubiquitous yellow public phone booths installed throughout the country.
Pitroda, who now splits his time between living in India and Chicago, looks back on the project with both pride and exhaustion. "In hindsight, I didn’t really know what I was doing,” he conceded during his lecture. “If I knew everything [then that] I know about India today, I never would have tried it.”
His most recent work as chair of India’s National Knowledge Commission resulted in three pages of recommendations that have inspired major legislation like the Right to Education Bill, requiring all children to attend school.
While detailing his work with the Commission, Pitroda painted himself exclusively as an idea man who leaves the implementation and evaluation of programs to others. But he understands the extreme challenges policymakers face, and has had to watch much of his work encounter some of the most common pitfalls that slow reform, including proper funding.
Although the Right to Education Bill was recently passed by Parliament, Pitroda says it will be many years before the country actually enforces it, for example. “Everyone agreed [to the bill], but no one agreed to fund it,” he explained, remaining hopeful but realistic about the speed of India’s continued transformation.
Such gradual progress doesn’t seem to discourage Pitroda. In his line of work, “planting the right seed” is all that matters.
By Vriti Jain
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