• 8:58 PM (IST)
    Posted by Hritika Mitra

    Padma Bhushan for Nadella, Pichai top recognition of India’s tech talent

     In a big honour for the top India-origin tech prowess that has virtually taken over the Silicon Valley in the US, the Indian government on Tuesday awarded Padma Bhushan to Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella and Alphabet and Google’s Sundar Pichai among the 17 awardees. Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the country, after Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan.

    Born on June 10, 1972 in Madras (now Chennai), Pichai Sundararajan — better known as Sundar Pichai — earned his degree from IIT Kharagpur in metallurgical engineering. Moving to the US, he earned an MS from Stanford University in materials science and engineering and further earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

    Pichai began his career as a materials engineer. After a short stint at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co, he joined Google in 2004, and the rest is history. Pichai was picked up as the next CEO of Google on August 10, 2015, after previously being appointed Product Chief by CEO Larry Page. He was appointed to the Alphabet Board of Directors in 2017.