New Microsoft chief underlines Indian-bred success abroad

FE Team | Published: February 06, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

MUMBAI, Feb 5 (AFP) : India on Wednesday celebrated the appointment of Satya Nadella as the new chief executive of Microsoft, seeing it as another endorsement of home-grown talent that has risen to the top of the US corporate world.
Nadella, who became the giant company's third CEO on Tuesday, was born and grew up in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad and studied at Mangalore University before shifting to America to further his studies and career.
"India makes a power point," said a proud front-page headline of the Times of India newspaper about the 46-year-old cricket lover's appointment.
"India has clearly emerged as the talent machine that is consistently churning out global CEOs," said the daily. Nadella, who has spent nearly half his life working for the technology titan, follows a string of Indian-origin business leaders who have made it to prestigious chief executive positions.
They include Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo and Ajay Banga at Mastercard, while Vikram Pandit ran Citibank until late 2012. Further afield, Anshu Jain is currently head of German banking giant Deutsche Bank.
Uttam Majumdar, founder of Locuz Enterprise Solutions, a technology firm based in Hyderabad, told AFP his appointment was "a matter of immense pride".
"He can be a role model for millions of youngsters. His appointment enhances the image of India as a nation in the eyes of the world," he said.
Vibhor Singhal, a Mumbai-based executive at brokerage PhillipCapital India, said a key reason for the success of India-origin executives was the "openness of the US economy in terms of accepting and allowing talent from outside to rise to the top".
Vikram Dhawan, director of investments at financial research firm Equentis Research, said that proficiency in the English language "also gives Indians an edge over the competition".
The South Asian nation produces about a million engineering graduates a year and has earned a reputation for its booming IT outsourcing business, thanks to its large educated workforce and low labour costs.
But many bright, middle-class youngsters leave the country due to a lack of well-paid jobs and difficulty in getting places at prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
In some cases, studying in the US is a choice for those who fail to gain entry to the IITs where competition is fierce for limited places.
"Is the appointment of Satya Nadella a feather in India's cap or a slap in the face for the Indian system?" asked an editorial on the Firstpost online news portal.
It suggested that, rather than celebrate Nadella, India should question why so many talented figures flower overseas instead of on home soil where family connections are often as important as qualifications.
Outside of corporate boardrooms, Indian-origin families have thrived in the United States.