Don’t be ashamed to fail: Pichai

Mr Pichai 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 startup founders is the same as that of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley,” he said. The one-hour session was similar to the Townhall of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who conducted a session at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in October. Mr Pichai’s session at Shriram College of Commerce was moderated by cricket commentator, Harsha Bhogle, who called the India-born executive the ‘Rahul Dravid of the tech industry’.

Mr Pichai said education system should teach students to take risks and system shouldn’t penalise students for taking risks. 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,” said Mr Pichai.

He pointed out that to move forward, creativity is an important attribute. When asked how much he had scored in his class 12 exams, Mr Pichai quipped, “Not enough to get into Shri Ram College of Commerce.” Asked why Google did not have any Indian dessert as Android version name, Mr Pichai said, “When I meet my Mom, I will ask for suggestions” and added that Google could conduct an online poll to decide the name for Android N. Some of the suggestions that came at the event itself included peda, neyyappam and nankhatai.

Mr Pichai, who revealed that in his childhood he wanted to be a cricketer also took out time to play cricket at India Gate with a few local residents.