Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on May 30 said that developers and entrepreneurs from India are playing a key role in driving innovation — both in the country and outside — and the company wants to be the platform for creators in the country.
Nadella, who was on a one-day trip to India, addressed student developers and entrepreneurs along with the minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha, who exhorted him to set up more research and development centres in India to innovate in the context of domestic needs.
“All your innovation from your global centres across the world is fine but to address the needs of Jhanda Chowk in Jharkhand, you need to set up more centres in the country and innovate according to its needs. If you innovate in India for India, you are going to be able to innovate for the world and India then can become the entrepreneurial engine for the next 6 billion people on the planet just like the US is the entrepreneurial engine for the top 1 billion people,” Sinha said.
Jhanda Chowk is in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand and is the constituency of Sinha.
Later in the day, Nadella met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“Discussed various issues pertaining to the IT sector with @Microsoft CEO @satyanadella @MicrosoftIndia,” Modi tweeted after the meeting. Details of the discussions were, however, not disclosed.
With Prasad, he discussed how Microsoft’s contribution to the government’s Digital India initiative can be enhanced.
“CEO @Microsoft @satyanadella met me today. Discussed enhancing cooperation with Microsoft towards @_DigitalIndia,” Prasad said in a tweet after the meeting. According to sources, the meeting revolved around open source policy, engagement of Microsoft for linking Skype and Aadhaar and enhanced cooperation for cloud services in the government sector.
“It’s so inspiring for me to come here to see this broad spectrum of student developers, entrepreneurs, artists and even some big brands, e-commerce companies who are all changing the landscape of India and thereby, the world,” Nadella said.
Source: The Financial Express
