P Chidambaram lauds rise of Satya Nadella to top of Microsoft hierarchy

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram said Indian students could be as good as any other student across the globe, mentioning the rise of Satya Nadella, who was named CEO of Microsoft on Tuesday.

“Some Indian students are just as good, otherwise you cannot have a 44-year old Indian named as head of Microsoft yesterday,” he told students of Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce on Wednesday.

Nadella will become only the third CEO in Microsoft’s 38-year history. “He studied in India. Son of an Indian officer who I knew, BN Yugandhar. He married a girl, who is daughter of another IAS officer, KR Venugopal,” Chidambaram said.

“Both of them joined Microsoft 22 years ago and he is presently the head of Microsoft. Why? Because he acquired professional edge, which places him above his Chinese counterpart or an American counterpart or European counterpart,” Chidambaram said.

The finance minister said Indian students should aspire for the same kind of professional edge over other country students.

“The world is global, whether you like it or not. All skills will now be measured only with one standard, the global standard,” he said. He said Indians need to try harder as they are competing with students of other countries who have more advantages.

“You are competing with some unknown student, somewhere in the US or China, more likely China. That student is now in a university, which ranks among the top 10 universities in the world. You are in the university, which does not figure in the top 200 in the world,” he said.