From cricket to soccer, selfie to software, the CEO of search engine giant Google, Sundar Pichai — who is on a three-day visit to India — exhorted the youth on Thursday to do their own thing in life. He announced his company is going to train two million new Android developers in the next three years in partnership with 30 universities of the country.
Pichai got candid with the students at Delhi University’s Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) where he addressed an extensive question-hour session with hash tag #AskSunder from the audience and those who sent out their videos online. Thrilled by the energy of India, Pichai said that the country has opportunity for entrepreneurs who have the spirit of “risk taking” which is a must to pursue a dream.
“As per the new plan (by Google), we will train two million Android developers in partnership with 30 universities. This will be done over the time period of next three years...I finally felt it when I visited India last year. The quality of ideas by Indian start-up founders is the same as that of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Start-ups should not be ashamed of failures and should rather learn from them.
In the Silicon Valley, it (failure) is considered a badge of honour due to the lessons the founders learnt from the journey,” he said.
While referring to the new entrepreneurs in India, the 43-year-old Indian origin CEO said India has no dearth of entrepreneurs. “There are entrepreneurs in every nook and corner. Taking risks is inbuilt in them. I see entrepreneur no different than any other professional. like internet became mainstream, entrepreneurship must evolve in the local market similarly,” Pichai added while referring to how entrepreneurship through start-ups can change the pace of nation in years to come.
Stressing on making education more creative and practical, Pichai said India had a rigorous education system but it needs to teach students to “take risks”.
“In US, people learn by doing things, India should also teach students through creativity. They should teach them to take risks,” he said, while sharing his love for technology from childhood.
Describing himself as a huge fan of cricket, Pichai said, “I did dream of being a cricketer like so many Indians. I used to be a huge fan of (Sunil) Gavaskar when he was playing and later, Sachin (Tendulkar) when he played. I always had a dream.”
The world famous techie said that Google has plans of major investment in India as it is an emerging market. “India is a very fast growing market, people are increasingly using internet here and Google has major investment plans for the country. Also, the fact that India is a very young country,” Pichai added.
He also said that Google is trying to bring all their services to India. “We are working very hard to bring everything (all its products to India). We also see an opportunity to do things first in India and that will work for global markets too.”
Citing the example of “YouTube Offline”, he said the service was first launched in India and then taken to 77 countries. “So we see that as a good template...We are investing a lot here. We are expanding our engineering offices in India significantly. I am excited about what we can do here and take it globally to rest of the world,” he said.
Pichai did not disappoint his audience who questioned him on choosing names like marsh-mellow and lollipop for androids and no title from Indian desserts. He went guessing from “sambar to paisam” as the names likely to be adapted for future android applications.
“Maybe we can do an online poll and decide which names will people like to have in their new android applications. And if all Indians vote, I think we can make (an Indian name) it happen.”
Taking on more serious issues like less ratio of women in technology, the young and bright CEO said it is a global problem. “Women are less than 1/3 of internet users. Helping women get online is important. There was a pilot project carried in rural areas where women went on cycle with smart phones to create awareness among the rural women about internet. The problem is they think internet is for their husbands and men. We plan to expand programme and reach out to thousands of villages in India. We should have more women developers,” he said.
When quizzed about where he sees Google in the next 30 years, the answer was indeed a lengthy one that circled around the CEO’s past and current experiences with Google. He said that he joined Google to help solve problems, and that he hopes that Google will be doing the same in the years to come.
Besides revealing that he owns 20 to 30 smartphones, the Chennai born tech executive was questioned on how much he scored in class XII in a candid rapid-fire session with cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle who followed the #AskSundar session.