By Sandhya Jain on April 30, 2013
The appointment of Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda (Sam) as adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation, and chairman, National Innovation Council, has come under a cloud with Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy alleging conflict of interest and breach of national security.
Pitroda is a close friend of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, and previously served the UPA as chairman, National Knowledge Commission (2005-2009). Under UPA-II, he was asked to head an expert committee on ICT in Railways and appointed adviser to the Prime Minister with the rank of Cabinet Minister, besides a number of other assignments.
Previously, Pitroda served as technology adviser to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who gave him charge of several national missions — telecommunications, literacy, dairy, water, immunisation, and oilseeds. He returned to India in 1984 at the invitation of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Wikipedia says he renounced his American citizenship to take Indian citizenship again in order to work in the Government.
But in the 1990s, Pitroda returned to Chicago to manage his business interests, returning to India again in 2004 when the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress managed to form a coalition Government at the Centre. His ability to thus move freely between two countries as per his convenience raises legitimate questions about his citizenship and affiliations. Subramanian Swamy has questioned his citizenship; given his assignments in Government, proximity to the Congress’s ruling family, and commercial interests abroad, his actions merit close scrutiny.
In a letter to Manmohan Singh (April 26, 2013), Swamy points out that according to information freely available on the Internet, Sam Pitroda is shown as the contemporary owner of a series of companies in the United States, including one in Mexico called Scientika, which are all involved in commercial activities pertaining to the “very same issues” on which he is advising the Government. This prima facie appears to be a case of conflict of interests.
Scientika, of which Pitroda is chairman, was founded by him in 2009 jointly with Javier Jileta. The company website carries large photographs of both gentlemen and speaks of the use of knowledge, information and technology for progress. It adds that, “As president of the Indian National Innovation Council he (Sam Pitroda) manages policy that is aimed toward social innovation with the goal of creating ‘inclusive development’ in India.”
“The Pitroda Group is a company that offers consulting services for the creation of knowledge economies, innovation, and telecommunications. The group currently has offices in the United States, India, Japan, Mexico, and China. Pitroda also heads C-SAM, a company that offers transaction services through mobile technology”.
Wikipedia states that C-SAM has its headquarters in Chicago with offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai and Vadodara. It adds that, “Following the development of core technologies in the US and Europe, C-SAM’s development centers in India now focus on innovation, customisation and cost effective deployment for its customers”.
The Pitroda Group, according to the website, “works as a consulting team directly guided by Sam Pitroda, who owns offices in India, Japan, United States, Mexico and China. Pitroda offers consulting in subjects related to knowledge economies (like information access and information) and how to insert them in the new paradigm He works with the public and private sector in order to make new synergies and build new knowledge clusters”.
The website speaks of the Global Knowledge Initiative: “With developing countries as a priority, we broker knowledge partnerships – partnerships between two or more people or institutions that generate new knowledge or transfer knowledge from where it is to where it is needed. Our approach is systemic in that we work across the entire ecosystem of actors that enable innovation, including academia, private sector, and the public sector. We prioritise local development goals and demand-led processes for priority setting.”
Prima facie, it seems obvious that Pitroda is actively engaged in his business enterprises, even as he advises the Government of India in several key sectors of development. In fact, earlier also when working in the telecommunications sector under the Rajiv Gandhi Government, there was a controversy over the import of telecom equipment from his private companies in America. Pitroda then defended the deals saying he was saving the country time and money by sewing up speedy purchases from his own firms.
Pitroda came into Swamy’s crosshairs on account of his close proximity to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and involvement in their fully controlled private company, Young Indian, which in April 2012 took over the assets of the National Herald Group with a loan of Rs 90 crore from the All India Congress Committee. The loan was then nullified (‘extinguished’ was the term used) against a payment of a mere Rs 50 lakh.
As a director in Young Indian, Pitroda along with Moti Lal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey facilitated the transaction. This was legally challenged as misappropriation and criminal breach of trust by Swamy. On March 15, 2013, Metropolitan Magistrate Gomti Manocha took cognisance of the complaint and directed him to testify in the case on July 9, 2013
http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/30/sam-pitroda%E2%80%99s-many-interests-71710.html