Prof. G. Sambasiva Rao, presently Director, School of Humanities, Indira Gandhi National open University, New Delhi, is one of the leading scholars in Historical Linguistics. He has published several papers in scholarly journals dealing with Dravidian Histrocial Studies, Socio-linguistics, Literacy, Modernisations of Languages, Telgu Language, Formation of Technical Terms in Indian Languages, Distance Education, Indian English, Language Planning, etc. His interpretation of the Dravidian alternations in terms of class nature of the roots and derived forms, is considered an original contribution by scholars in the field. In addition, he has edited over 800 academic publications of different disciplines for Indira Gandhi National Open University and Central Institute of Indian Languages. His book "A Comparative Study of Dravidian Noun Derivation", is an Important contribution to the Dravidian Historical Studies. He, in association with Rekha Sharma conducted a socio-linguistic survey in Mauritius and published a book " A Socio-linguistic Survey of Mauritius."
Born in Kancherlapalem (Tenali) in 1941 he studied at T.H. School (Tenali), A.C. College (Guntur), Andhra University (Waltair) and Cornell University (USA). He worked at A.C. College Guntur ( 1960-61), PSG Arts College, Coimbatore (1961-62), Cornell University, Ithaca, USA ( 1969-73) and the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore (1974-86) before joining IGNOU in 1986 as Professor/Editor. He has participated and presented papers at several international conferences held in USA (L.S.A., S.A.L.A.), Greece (IALA), Germany (GLA), Mauritius ( World Telugu conference ), Hong Kong (AAOU). He is a life member of the Linguistic Society of India and the Dravidian Linguistics Association, Currently he is working on a textbook on Historical Linguistics for the Indian students.