Bengaluru/New Delhi, Aug 11
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 US.
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 symbolized 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.
"Pichai,
Nadella and scores of other Indians who went on to build IT products
demonstrate the maturity of our IT industry, which has come of age to
catch up with global peers and move up the value chain to innovation
from software services and back office operations," said Chandrashekhar.
Echoing
the industry body's view, former Infosys director and Manipal Global
Education T.V. Mohandas Pai said Pichai's rise to the top in Google was a
testimony to the great global talent India had and the globalisation of
Indian economy.
"With a more open economy, Indians are working
at senior levels across global enterprises and are beginning to head
global corporations, particularly in technology," Pai told IANS here.
Representing
the $150-billion Indian IT industry, the National Association of
Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) plans to invite Pichai to
India for building an ecosystem in the country to replicate its success
in software services in products for serving domestic and global
markets.
"It is a matter of pride to have many Indians like
Pichai in top positions in the tech world, and it would be an honour to
have their expertise in speeding up product development, innovation and
creating new devices for global market," Chandrashekhar added.
Lauding
Pichai for becoming a chief executive of a global firm at a young age,
former Infosys director and angel investor V. Balakrishnan said it was
wonderful to see many Indians occupy the top posts in global
corporations.
"Google is one of the most innovative organisations
in the world, and Pichai is one of the most respected persons in the
technology industry. His elevation to the chief executive post in Google
validates once again the quality and depth of managerial talent India
has," Balakrishnan told IANS here.
