Google CEO Sundar Pichai interacts at IIT-KGP; talks machine learning, Digital India and more

After announcing the Digital Unlocked initiative for Indian small and medium businesses (SMB), Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday visited his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur.

Pichai, who is currently in India on a work and personal visit talked about his time at IIT-KGP and Google in addition to taking live questions.

At IIT-Kharagpur, Pichai answered questions from students at an open-air theatre in the campus. The Chennai born CEO discussed his life on campus in an event titled 'A journey back to the past to inspire the future'. The event, which was attended by over 3,500 students, was streamed live by Google on YouTube.

Talking about how things have changed in terms of technology, Pichai said, "The rate at which things have been progressing in India is phenomenal."

"We didn't have phones back then. I remember waiting for a long time to get a rotary phone at home. Didn't have access to computers growing up. Clearly the progress has been phenomenal," added the Google CEO.

"I am fully confident that India will be a global player when it comes to digital economies. We are growing well as a country and will not be behind any country, even the most advanced ones when it comes to digitisation and digital economies," he said.

Recalling a funny incident back in the college days Pichai said, "I didn't know Hindi too well when I came here from Chennai. I thought "abbey saale!" was a way to call out to people. I learnt Hindi in college."

On being asked about how he met his better half, Pichai said, "I met Anjali at IIT-K and she was my classmate. Just to go get someone at the girl's hostel, you had to walk in the front and request someone to call them. And they'd go in and loudly say Anjali, Sundar is here. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience," he said.

Talking about how Google is working on products for the country that can be expanded globally, he said, "We look forward to cheaper smartphones in India. In the USD 30 bracket for entry level smartphones."

"We at Google want to focus on usage of Internet in rural areas in India. We are big supporters of the Digital India program. We are also working on digitizing payments," added Pichai.