Sundar Pichai Symbolises New India: IT Industry

NEW DELHI: The Indian IT industry is upbeat over the appointment of Indian-born Sundarajan Pichai, 43, as chief executive of the world's largest search engine Google Inc in the U.S.

Elated over the meteoric rise of Pichai in Google, who will succeed its co-founder Larry Page a decade after joining the Silicon Valley behemoth in 2004, a top industry executive said on Tuesday that the IIT graduate symbolised new India, representing talent, technology, innovation and managerial acumen.

"It is not a surprise that another Indian techie has made it to the top a year after Satya Nadella became Microsoft's chief executive. They both with many others represent the best of talent, creativity and managerial ability to run global corporations," Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar told IANS.

In a sudden announcement at Palo Alto where Google is headquartered, Page said that former Chrome and Android head Pichai would be the new executive as he was moving out to head a new umbrella company Alphabet.

Google's other co-founder Sergey Brin will be the president of Alphabet, floated to run its other subsidiaries such as Life Sciences and Calico.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to greet Pichai for heading one of the most valued technology firms in the world.

"Congratulations Sundar Pichai. My best wishes for the new role at Google," Modi tweeted.

Modi is likely to meet Pichai during his visit to the Silicon Valley in September to address the Indian Diaspora, especially hundreds of Indian-born techies and entrepreneurs working in global IT firms and start-ups in the Bay area.

"We are planning to have an inter-active session between Modi and our Diaspora in the Silicon Valley where he will meet Pichai, Nadella and other Indian-born and Indian American honchos to seek their expertise in fast tracking the 'Digital India' and 'Make in India' programmes," Chandrashekhar said.

Nadella also tweeted: "Congrats sundarpichai well deserved!"

Besides strengthening Indian and American tech partnership, elevation of Pichai and Nadella to top posts underscored the fact that India has become a storehouse of global talent in technology and management.
Read Also:
Central Railway To Run Over 100 Special Trains For Ganesh Chaturthi
India, US to Hold Key Commercial Dialogue Next Month