NOMINEES

He’s a serial entrepreneur, founder of the Deshpande Foundation in India, US and Canada. Dr Gururaj 'Desh' Deshpande is part of the Obama Government’s Technology & Entrepreneurship advisory board. The Deshpande Foundation, with its Sandbox concept covering 5 districts, is spreading social innovation and entrepreneurship at the grass-root level, with plans to set up India’s first Skill Development University in Hubli.

The current Defence Minister of Canada, Harjit Singh Sajjan is the first Indo-Canadian to have held this post. Prior to his stint in politics, Sajjan was a detective in the Vancouver Police Department and a regimental commander in the Canadian Armed Forces, decorated for his service in Afghanistan.

Nikesh Arora was Google President and Pichai’s colleague for a decade. Named Softbank President in May, he replaced Masayoshi Son on Japan’s Yahoo board. Nikesh is one of Asia’s biggest tech Investors, especially active in India and has invested over a billion dollars in Snapdeal, Ola and Oyo Rooms. Named by Masayoshi Son as his successor, he aims to be the Berkshire Hathaway of tech.

The current United States Ambassador to India, Richard Verma is the first Indian- American to have held the post and has played an instrumental role in shaping Indo-US ties over the last year. In a little over a year, the Ambassador has helped bridge differences between India and the US on issues as varied as civil nuclear technology to climate change. Previously he was the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.

From a middle manager working on the Google tool bar to CEO, second only to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai has seen a meteoric rise to the top of one of the most iconic tech companies. Along the way Pichai headed some of Google's best sellers like Chrome and Android. Google has promised free wifi at 100 railway stations in India and is working on Project Loon - net connections through balloons.