Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulates Sundar Pichai on new role

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today joined a big Twitter rush to congratulate India-born Sundar Pichai on his appointment as the CEO of the newly restructured Google.

"Congratulations @sundarpichai. My best wishes for the new role at @google," Modi tweeted after the announcement.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad too tweeted his greetings, saying: "Really proud to note that #India born @sundarpichai has been appointed as CEO of @google".

Microsoft Chairman Satya Nadella and Pichai's former colleague and SoftBank President Nikesh Arora conveyed their best wishes.

Nadella tweeted: "Congrats @sundarpichai, well deserved."

Arora, who was Pichai's colleague at Google, described the new chief as "a brilliant guy, clear thinker, gets things done and a wonderful person at that".

In a lighter vein, he tweeted: "Now I feel cheated :)."

Arora had quit Google last year, where he was serving as the Chief Business Officer to join Japan's SoftBank Corp.

Bret Taylor, co-creator of Google Maps, ex-CTO of Facebook and co-founder of technology Quip, also congratulated Pichai.

Congratulating Pichai, industry body Nasscom said he will be "instrumental in infusing a new sense of enthusiasm and innovation in the sector globally".

"Sundar Pichai is a new-age leader and with his immense experience in the field of software products, he will be a valuable asset for Google and the industry in its next phase of evolution and growth," it said.

Pichai, 43, was named CEO of the newly organised Google, becoming the third chief executive of the company, after Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page.

Pichai is a B Tech from IIT-Kharagpur, an MS from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania.