About the Event
In this talk, Sam Pitroda, influential policymaker, inventor, and entrepreneur, reflected on his professional journey, culminating in his most recent book, “Redesign the World: A Global Call to Action”.
About Sam Pitroda
Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected development thinker, policymaker, inventor, and entrepreneur who has spent over 55 years in Telecom & IT.
Credited with having laid the foundation of India's Technology revolution in the 1980s, he was advisor to the Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1980s and Dr. Singh in 2010s with a cabinet minister' rank. He invented the electronic diary in 1974, mobile wallet in 1996, and set up C-SAM Inc., acquired by Master Card in 2013. He was Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, National Innovation Council, Smart grid task, Railway modernization, & Public broadcast reforms.
Pitroda holds over 100 patents, 20 Hon. Ph.D.s, and has published and lectured extensively globally. He is a member of the American Academy of Engineers. His biography was published in 1992, autobiography “Dreaming Big” in 2015 & “ Redesign the World” in 2021.
Those interested in his work on India should also read “Development, Democracy, and the Indian Village,” Harvard Business Review, 1993.
About the Book
Redesign the World: A Global Call to Action
The world was last designed seventy-five years ago, about the same time that Sam Pitroda was born. This design has outlived its utility. Hyperconnectivity and the COVID-19 pandemic offer a unique opportunity to redesign the world to take humanity to the next level.
Redesigning the world is not about looking at it from the point of view of liberal or conservative; left or right; capitalism or socialism; public or private; democracy, dictatorship or monarchy; open or closed systems; rich or poor; urban or rural; east or west; white, brown, black or yellow. This proposed redesign of the world has the planet and its people at the centre; it is built on the foundations of sustainability, inclusion, equality, equity and justice so that everyone on Earth can enjoy peace and prosperity. It is not an idealist or utopian vision, but one with humanity at its core.
About the Vivek and Vandana Sharma India Lecture Series
The India Lecture Series brings thought leaders to Northeastern University for free and public lectures on critical issues impacting the world's second most populous country. It is now endowed and known as the Vivek and Vandana Sharma India Lecture Series.