Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Google's Sundar Pichai to visit India later this month

NEW DELHI: The Indian-origin chiefs of the world’s largest technology companies-—Microsoft and Google—are going to be in the country later this month. While Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella is expected to come toward the end of December on a personal visit, Sundar Pichai— recently elevated as boss of Google Inc—will be here in a week or so.

This is going to be Chennai-born Pichai’s first visit to India—in fact his first overseas trip— after he took over as CEO of the restructured Google in August. During the two-day visit, he’s expected to outline his vision for India and will be joined by senior global executives from Google.

Hyderabad-born Nadella has been a more frequent visitor to the country, having come to India just a month ago to attend Microsoft’s flagship Future Unleashed event and meet key customers, partners and developers. However, a Microsoft India spokesperson said there was no official communication regarding his December visit and he may be coming on a personal trip. Nadella was in India last year as well during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

In his official trip in September last year, Nadella had announced plans for local data centres in the country. According to people aware of his plans, Pichai, 43, will be delivering the keynote address at the Google for India event on December 16 in New Delhi. He’s expected to share Google’s plans for India, one of the largest growth markets for the company globally.

He will also attend a dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with business leaders. He will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pichai was among those Modi met in September during his Silicon Valley visit. Nadella and other top CEOs also attended that meeting. Over the past year, India has seen a spate of visits by global executives, with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg having been among the recent ones.

On his first official trip to the country as Facebook chief, Zuckerberg hosted an open house with students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. Pichai is also expected to host a similar session, although it’s being planned at Delhi University. Pichai last visited India in September 2014 to launch Android One in his capacity as head of the Google mobile operating system at the time. Although it’s not clear what announcements might be expected, Google has taken a big bet on the country.