In our previous blog, we had focused on the revolution of technology in India and how India has transformed as a nation and has acclimatised the concept of coding bootcamps in India. On the occasion of 72nd Republic Day, Coding Ninjas brings you the Indian trailblazers who are setting up a benchmark across the globe and inspiring a million others to chase their dreams.
India is home to some leading IT colleges like the signature Indian Institute Of Technology (IITs), Manipal Institute Of Technology and many others. India has produced tech doyens over the last few decades who have not only been the alumni of these prominent institutions but have also build a strong footprint across the borders.
Here’s a list of key tech influencers and their journey that can awaken your passion for programming with an aim to work towards it tirelessly.
Ajay Bhatt, USB
He is an Indian-American computer architect who is credited as being the father of the USB standard. It is something that almost every computing device uses today in some form or another. Bhatt was born in 1957 and graduated from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India. He then went on to receive a master’s degree from The City University of New York before joining Intel in 1990.
Soon, Bhatt became Intel’s chief client platform architect, but not before co-inventing USB, as well as several other crucial standards in graphics and computer architecture holding 31 US patents till date. He is also the person behind several of the modern computer connection standards including the high-speed Thunderbolt connection. For his contribution to the PCI Express standard, he has received an Achievement in Excellence Award in 2002.
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Born in 1955 in Delhi, Khosla was inspired into a career in technology by reading about the founding of Intel in 1968 at the age of 14. He attained his degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He then moved to the US to obtain a masters in biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a masters from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1980. Khosla cofounded computer hardware firm Sun Microsystems in 1982 with Andy Bechtolsheim, Bill Joy and Scott McNealy.
He has spent 18 years at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (now called Kleiner Perkins) before launching his own fund, Khosla Ventures.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet & Google
Pichai pursued education at IIT Kharagpur (B Tech), Stanford (MS) and Wharton (MBA); at Wharton, he was named a Siebel Scholar and Palmer Scholar. He is the man overseeing Android, Chrome and apps at Google. Having worked at technology company Applied Materials and consultancy firm McKinsey & Company before joining Google in 2004, he initially led the development of the company’s software, including the Chrome browser, Chrome OS, Drive, Gmail and Maps. He also announced Google’s open-source video format VP8 and WebM in 2010.
Sabeer Bhatia, Hotmail
Another pioneering web service, Hotmail, was founded by an Indian technology talent who emigrated to the US in the 1980s. Leaving academia, Bhatia briefly worked for Apple as a hardware engineer before moving to a Cannon Subsidiary FirePower Systems Inc. He was struck by the fact that software was accessible on the internet via a browser, which birthed the idea of email in the browser.
He linked up with a colleague, Jack Smith, to launch Hotmail in 1996, which became one of the biggest email providers in the world and was bought by Microsoft in 1998. In 1999, Bhatia then left Microsoft and founded an e-commerce firm, Arzoo Inc, before starting a free messaging service called JaxtrSMS.
Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook
India’s software talent in big US companies is not limited to search. Born in 1982 in Pune, Sanghvi became Facebook’s first female engineer, joining the social network in 2005. At Facebook Sanghvi was one of the primary engineers working on the first iteration of what was set to become the mainstay of Facebook, the News Feed. It was launched in 2006, but Sanghvi and team were rebuked by users and critics alike for its privacy implications. That lead her and her team to a 48-hour coding session, rapidly creating the first iteration of Facebook’s complicated privacy controls.
Meanwhile, an ode on behalf of Coding Ninjas for our students community on the occasion of Republic Day.
Shantanu Narayen, Adobe
Born in 1963 in Hyderabad, he holds a Bachelor in Science from Osmania University, an MBA from University of California, Berkley, and an MS from Bowling Green State University. Narayen held product development roles at Apple and Silicon Graphics before co-founding photo-sharing startup Pictra. A chance encounter between Adobe and Pictra led to Narayen joining Adobe, where rose swiftly through the product ranks. He currently serves as Adobe Systems Chief Executive.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra, HCL Corporation
Ranked 54th on Forbes World’s 100 most influential Women list, Roshni Nadar is an icon. She is the current CEO and executive director of HCL corporation along with being the Vice-chairperson of HCL technologies, Trustee of Shiv Nadar Foundation and the Founder and trustee of The Habitats Trust. Before her endeavours with HCL, she was a successful NEWS producer at Sky News in the United Kingdom. She is also the Chairperson of and driving force behind, VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for the economically underprivileged and meritorious students from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft
He joined Microsoft in 1992 and became the CEO of the company in 2014 succeeding Steve Ballmer. Born in Hyderabad, he has a BE from Manipal Institute of Technology, MS from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He previously held the position of executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.
Parag Agrawal, Twitter
An engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Tiwari has been with Twitter since 2011 and is currently their Chief Technical Officer. Prior to this Tiwari has also worked with Microsoft, AT&T and Yahoo’s research teams.
Indira Nooyi, Amazon
Following her schooling from AIHSS Chennai, she obtained a BSc from Madras Christian College. She later moved to Kolkata to pursue her master’s in finance and marketing from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta. She started her career with ABB and then went on to work for Johnson & Johnson. Nooyi is the 11th member of Amazon’s board. Her last well-known stint was as CEO of Pepsico.
Now that you have got an outline around Indians and their stellar work in the tech space across continents, it’s time to bring back your focus on programming and the immense potential technology will hold in the near future.
Indian edtech forecast
India is the youngest country in the world with a vibrant startup ecosystem. In 2019 alone, over 1,300 startups were added, thereby solidifying India’s position as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The massive $167 billion IT industry mostly comprises companies that provide software services and backend IT support. While there is a plethora of new-age product startups in the consumer internet and enterprise space, the shortcoming lies in the absence of platform companies that can compete with global players.
According to a report by Inc42, in 2020, edtech segment managed to attract close to $1.43 Bn funding, compared to $1.8 Bn raised by edtech startups across 303 deals between 2014 and 2019. Out of 101 edtech startups that were funded last year, about 51 startups received seed-stage funding, according to Inc42 Plus analysis. A report by BARC India and Nielsen revealed that there has been a 30% increase in the time spent on education apps on smartphones since the lockdown. Meanwhile, a SimilarWeb survey showed that the edtech segment noted a 26% year-on-year increase in user visits between April 2019 and March 2020.
From becoming a programmer to working with a leading tech giant or running your own startup, the choice is yours! Technology is the present and will be a major part of our lives in the future. Our recommendation would be to start your coding journey today with Coding Ninjas.
