Sundar Pichai, who is the current CEO of the American multinational technology company Google, received the Padma Bhushan award on Friday, December 2, 2022, from the Indian envoy in the US. Pichai accepted the award from India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, in the presence of his close family members in San Francisco.
“India is a part of me, and I carry it with me wherever I go, unlike this beautiful award, which I will keep somewhere safe.” – Sundar Pichai
Padma Bhushan, which is India’s third-highest civilian award, was presented to Sundar Pichai on the eve of India’s 73rd Republic Day.
The Ministry of Home Affairs conferred the award to Pichai in the ‘Trade and Industry” category alongside N Chandrasekaran (Tata Group), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Krishna and Suchitra Ella (Bharat Biotech), and Cyrus Poonawalla (Serum Institute of India).
On receiving the award, Pichai said, “I am deeply grateful to the Indian government and the people of India for this immense honour. It is incredibly meaningful to be honoured in this way by the country that shaped me. I look forward to continuing the great partnership between Google and India as we work together to bring the benefits of technology to more people.“
India’s Consul General in San Francisco, T. V. Nagendra Prasad, was also present during the event.
Google appointed India-born Pichai as the company’s CEO in 2015. In 2017, when Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page decided to step down, Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc.
Pichai completed his bachelor’s in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur and moved to the US to get a master’s from Stanford University in materials science and engineering. He also received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Pichai, after joining Google in 2004, became the man behind many products, including Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Maps, Drive, and Gmail. He was also behind Google’s Android project and the new video format, WebM.
The Padma Bhushan was awarded to Pichai alongside Nadella for their contributions towards their US-based companies’ growth which has largely benefitted their motherland.
After Pichai was appointed the CEO, Google began investing in Indian startups and SMEs. He also brought the Google for India initiative and the tech giant invested in the country’s internet companies via a partnership with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio. Pichai stated that he looks forward to Google India and Google-supported startups building tech products for the world.
However, the tech giant is under scrutiny in the country for a host of reasons. In October, the Competition Commission of India levied penalties of INR 1,338 crore and INR 936 crore on the US-based company due to its anti-competitive practices in the Android market and in-app payments policy, respectively, in India.
