What Indian immigrant success says about American Exceptionalism
August 12, 2015
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India-born Sundar Pichai has been named CEO of the newly restructured Google. The former Google CEO, Larry Page will now be heading a much larger Google entity.
The news of Sundar Pichai's appointment, a former student of prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was well received in India, with newspaper headlines using words like “pride”, "joy" and the fulfilment of the proverbial “American Dream” for a fellow countryman.
The leading Indian Newspaper The Hindustan Times reported the Indian IT industry’s response to the news:
The Indian IT industry elated that 43-year-old Sundar Pichai is Google's new CEO. Pichai, who will succeed Google co-founder Larry Page as CEO a decade after joining the Silicon Valley behemoth in 2004, symbolises a new India, and represents talent, technological innovation, and managerial acumen, an Indian IT industry executive said.The new Google CEO Sundar Pichai will not be the lone Indian-origin CEO at the helm of Corporate American. He will be joining corporate heavyweights like Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, PepsiCo’s Chairperson & CEO Indra Nooyi, and Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayen -- just to name a few. Indians at home and abroad often highlight their country's success in Information Technology, and rightly so. But a less advertised aspect of India’s success in IT-sector has been the contribution of Indians returning back from the Silicon Valley, California -- bringing not only technical skills but also Silicon Valley’s attitude and values along with them. The truth is, there would be no Indian success story to report today if it was not for the Silicon Valley in the first place. Silicon Valley in turn is a product of entrepreneurship, spirit of enterprise and personal excellence -- values that are quintessentially American.