Re posting from the timeline post of #Jatin #Naik Samir Kelekar is Goa’s midnight child. He was born less than 4 months after liberation. Samir was in the womb of his mother when the Indian army walked in to drive out the Portuguese. Born to freedom fighter #Gurunath #Kelekar, Samir grew up among peoples’ movements. First was the opinion poll to keep Goa separate from Maharashtra. As a 5 year old then, Samir accompanied his parents to meetings of the anti-merger folks. Later, Samir saw the fight for the recognition of Konkani as a language. Samir’s father used to publish one of the first magazines in Konkani to come out of Goa -- Novem Goem. Four of Samir’s uncles participated in the anti-merger movement. Ravindra Kelekar one of Samir’s uncles is the only Gyanpeeth award winner in Konkani, not to mention one of Goa’s foremost thinkers. Samir studied his primary in Konkani. Samir has had a superb academic carrer unrivalled yet by any Goan since. He stood 3 rd in Goa at the SSC, 1 st in Goa in the 12 th std, and 115 th All India rank at the IIT Entrance Examination. Samir went on to do a BTech in Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Later Samir went to the US on a scholarship and completed his Master’s and PhD. Samir studied at famed Ivy-league Columbia University, New York, and received his PhD in Electrical Engineering. This is the same university where Babasaheb Ambedkar did his PhD. In the meantime during the summers, he worked at IBM’s T J Watson Research Center. He published in top international journals in the area of network protocols. Always rooting for the underdog, Samir is a rebel at heart, an iconoclast in nature. Samir returned to India --- specifically Bangalore in 1995 and worked for many companies such as Motorola, Alcatel, and startups such as Sanrise and Narus. Then the entreprenuial bug bit him. He tried to merge his passion for free speech with enterprenurship and started Black Byte Networks a website to uncensor the internet, a company which he ran for several years. Samir is a highly regarded professional in the area of IT, specifically security and networking. He owns 2 US patents in the critical area of mobile security, and these patents are valued highly in today’s market. Samir’s interest in doing something for Goa made him involve in issues regarding Goa. In 2006, he was appointed Director of Infotech Corporation of Goa, and there he exposed the IT park scam. The exposure led to closing down of the scam ridden IT park project. Later he exposed scams such as the tablet scam. He participated in an active campaign against the UID project, one he believes leads to a surveillance society. Samir was also threatened with arrest by the speaker of the then Goa Assembly, when in one of the columns in a newspapers, Samir criticised corruption and goings on in the Assembly. Samir is a good writer and has written columns for many top publications. He is widely quoted nationally as an IT expert. Samir has now returned to Goa to work with Goans to fix the mess that is Goa.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 04:27:28 +0000