Sam Pitroda: "In India, you have to aim at the moon to touch the roof." (August 12, 2005)

    Two decades ago, Sam Pitroda was called upon to transform India's telephone system by developing exchanges rugged enough for rural India. Currently his C-DOT technology

supports more than 20 million telephone lines across India.

Pitroda, an electrical engineer, holds nearly 50 telecommunication patents and until co-opted by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to chair the eight member Knowledge Commission was chair of the U.K.-based company WorldTel.

And what is it that India's Prime Minister wants Sam Pitroda to aim for? -- to have India emerge as a hub for innovation and knowledge generation.

The Knowledge Commission's terms are to chart out policy initiatives to foster excellence in India's educational institutions and public-funded research laboratories which, according to knowledgeable observes, are long overdue for reform.

According to Science:

The government wants the commission to come up with bold proposals to infuse creativity into Indian universities and research centers and reverse what Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as "falling standards." Pitroda promises that the commission's first action plan, due in October, will contain some radical ideas. "In India, you have to aim at the moon to touch the roof," he says.

A week ago members of the Commission met with the Indian Prime Minister after a three day initial planning session which was followed by a media briefing.

According to The Indian Express:

Hinting at some of the plans that could constitute phase-I, [Pitroda] stressed the need for a greater number of institutions like the Harvards and Oxfords of the world teaching liberal arts. Without undermining the importance of institutes like the IITs, he said such institutes were key to the creating of tomorrow’s leaders.

 

Raising productivity and efficiency while cutting costs were the motives behind their recommendations, Pitroda explained. It was too early to estimate the cost of implementing their recommendations, he said, adding that it would take 20 years for their plans to bear fruit.

Sam Pitroda summed matters up telling the media, "We will not come out with a voluminous report that gathers dust. We will come out with the first set of action points by October."