Sam Pitroda and Dr PM Bhargava, former CCMB director and BioSpectrum columnist has been appointed as the vice-chairman of the Knowledge Commission, which will report directly to the Prime Minister. The eight-member commission also includes Infosys MD Nandan Nilekani, Deepak Nayyar, Ashok Ganguly, Dr Andre Beteille, Dr Jayanti Ghosh and Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta. The commission is planning to submit its plan of action by October this year. It also foresees that within the next two years work on the action plan would be initiated.

Outlining the objectives of the commission, Dr Bhargava said, "The Commission primarily has three key objectives - to make India a leader by equipping people with knowledge in all fields, create a knowledge-based society and to keep every citizen in the country well-informed about the developments across the globe, and to use this knowledge base to serve the interests of the people and for the betterment of the society."

He informed that in order to fulfil these objectives a formal meeting with the commission members on the July 14 would take place. Going further, a full-commission meeting chaired by Sam Pitroda is planned for the first week of August and basing on the deliberations, a detailed plan of action would be in place by this October to be submitted to the Prime Minister.

Dr Bhargava opined, "This validated knowledge should not be exploited but should be used for the betterment of the people and society. If people are well-informed governance becomes much easier and can maintain transparency."