Incredible to see India's startup culture picking up: Google CEO Sundar Pichai

Mumbai: Google CEO Sundar Pichai interacted with students at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) during an ‘Ask Sundar' session in Delhi University on Thursday. This is Pichai’s first trip outside US after becoming Google’s CEO.

Commenting on the growing start-up culture in India, Pichai said, “It's only when I came here last year I felt that start-up culture has taken hold here, it's incredible to see.”

He addressed the young entrepreneurs in India, pointing out the importance of start-ups to build, develop and keep on innovating. “You do need entrepreneurs to build things for India and globally. All the elements which you need are already here,” Pichai said.

Pichai further said he had been waiting for this change in the country for many 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," he said.

Pichai added that 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.

(Read: Did dream of being a cricketer, says Google CEO Sundar Pichai)

Growing developmental opportunities in India

The India-born Google CEO also discussed about the rising potential of Indian markets, which is why his company is making back-to-back major investments in the country. He pointed out that a strong mobile devices market and interest in technology present a good opportunity to build products in India and then taking them global, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on Thursday.

"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," Pichai said at an event here.

He also said that young entrepreneurs should always dream about helping others through thier ventures--the same way Google constantly works to help people around the world solve thier dilemmas using improved technology.

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 in India. 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.

Experimental learning important for growth

Apart from discussing India’s growing market potential, he also emphasised on the need to encourage creativity and experiential learning as part of the Indian education system.

Talking about the education in India, the Chennai-born CEO said the system should "encourage creativity and experiential learning". He said the focus in India was more on rigorous academic knowledge, while education in the US was more experiential.

"That's a big difference. I think it should allow a system of creativity, project-based, experiential learning. We should teach students to take risks and not penalise them," he told the audience at a Delhi University college here.

Pichai also gave general advices to the students present during the session. He also answered a lot of other interesting questions during the interactive Q&A session.

Following are the other interesting quotes by Sundar Pichai, from the intuitive interactive session:

• Google is an amazingly fun place, you walk around and people are working on amazing things
• It is important to follow your dream and do something you are excited about, If you follow your heart you always do better
• I think I'd still be building software products-Sundar Pichai on being asked what he would hv been if not Google CEO
• At some point in your life you have to work with people where you feel a bit insecure, that's essential because that means you're working with people who are better than you, who are pushing you, all this will encourage you
• Starting a company and failing, is a badge of honour
• It's a global problem, but more pronounced in India.Women account for less than 1/3rd of internet usage

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