Indians in international tech roles a 'web optimistic', says Cisco's Jeetu Patel

The rising variety of Indian-origin leaders on the helm of main international expertise firms shouldn’t be seen by the prism of mind drain, however as a “web optimistic” for each India and the world, stated Jeetu Patel, President and Chief Product Officer of Cisco.

Addressing the talk on whether or not India loses out when its high expertise rises to management roles in america and different superior economies, Patel rejected the zero-sum framing.

“I consider India as a web exporter of expertise,” he advised PTI in an interview, including, “I have never considered this as a zero-sum equation.”
He argued that Indian professionals thriving globally usually accomplish that due to the cultural grounding they obtain at house.

“Indians which were born and raised right here and have truly had the good thing about the cultural values which were instilled in us – of arduous work and schooling and ethics and all of that – after which we go to totally different elements of the world and we find yourself thriving there largely due to a few of these values that had been instilled in us within the first place is a web optimistic for the world but it surely’s additionally a web optimistic for India.”
“I do not consider it as a zero-sum,” he reiterated.

His remarks come at a time when a number of Indian-origin executives occupy high roles in main US expertise corporations, fuelling discussions on whether or not India’s international expertise footprint displays alternative or loss.

Indians and Indian-origin leaders now occupy a number of the most influential tech roles in america and past, illustrating the worldwide affect of the nation’s expertise pipeline. Within the US, Satya Nadella heads Microsoft and Sundar Pichai leads Alphabet (Google’s mum or dad), whereas Arvind Krishna is CEO of IBM and Shantanu Narayen chairs Adobe, one of many world’s largest software program firms. Nikesh Arora serves as CEO of cybersecurity agency Palo Alto Networks, and Vijaye Raji is Chief Expertise Officer of Purposes at OpenAI, overseeing engineering for key AI platforms.

Requested about India’s technological rivalry with China, significantly in synthetic intelligence and superior infrastructure, Patel acknowledged Beijing’s strengths however cautioned in opposition to simplistic comparisons.

“I believe China… is a drive within the sense that they have the good thing about (a unique system). It is a very totally different factor (than) working a democracy with 1.4 billion individuals and having a system that’s utterly a command and management system,” he stated.

“What China has completed over the course of the previous few years is definitely very commendable,” Patel added.

On the similar time, he pointed to India’s structural benefits, together with demographics, scale and international partnerships.

“I might consider the chance that India has forward of them with the dimensions and the demographics benefit and the power to have allies with international locations all all over the world,” he stated.

Expressing confidence in India’s trajectory, Patel stated, “I would not take a look at this as second to anybody. I really feel like there’s numerous goodness left available.”
His feedback underscore a broader view that international expertise mobility and geopolitical competitors in expertise needn’t be framed as binary contests, however as evolving ecosystems the place international locations can leverage their distinctive strengths.