Google CEO Sundar Pichai interacts with SRCC students: As it happened

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Google CEO Sundar Pichai addressed the students at the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University on Thursday.

Also read: Sundar Pichai in India: Google to invest more, step up hiring and build new campus

The event saw a lot of fun, humour, wit as well as some serious thoughts being expressed by the India-born Google CEO.

Here's what happened at the CEO-Students interaction

- At the Ask Sundar interactive session, Cricket analyst Harsha Bhogle asks some really witty questions.

ALSO READ: Google CEO Sundar Pichai meets PM Narendra Modi

- I am a huge football fan and MLC fan, says a cheerful Pichai.

- Bhogle draws a lot of parallel with cricket and Pichai's working.

- Pichai seem to be taking all the questions with a lot of energy and zest.

- Pichai starts taking questions from students.

Also read: Sundar Pichai touts India as key testing ground for new products

- On interest in technology: I was always interested in technology. Wanted to be a part of something that connects humanity. I would encourage all of you to work with people you think are better than you, you must push yourself and get out of the comfort zone, says Pichai.

- Pichai takes a video question from IIT Kanpur.

- Chase your dreams and cherish and nurture the idea to reinvent, says Pichai.

- On developers and entrepreneurs: The more developers you have the more possibility of problems being solved. Our idea is to train too many new android developers in the coming three years, Pichai says.

Also read: Sundar Pichai visits India: 10 takeaways from the Google event

- On Indian education system and ability to become future ready: I think India has a culture of very strong educational system. Creativity is an important attribute. Encouraging creativity is of utmost importance. It should be practical --where you get hands on, project based learning. It is important to teach students to take risks, adds Pichai.

- Structural barriers holding India's growth, says Pichai

- About one think that he does very well: I think at Google we would always be thinking about how do we work for 1 billion people. So everything we did, the approach was to get solution to problems, Pichai says.

Also read: Google's full throttle expansion means India is the next big market

- On broadband connectivity to railway station and its benefits: It is the largest public WIFI projects undertaken in the world. The reason we are doing it is because in India, we thought bringing internet to public would bring in a lot of awareness.

- On how different is his vision of Google from Page and Brin: I worked with them (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) for many years. They are still very involved and equally ambitious. For me it was truly a privilege to get this opportunity, says Pichai.

- We see an increasing opportunity to do things first in India and then taking it to world. This is why we are expanding so much in India. A campus in Hyderabad is an offshoot of this.

ALSO READ: Sundar Pichai wanted to be a cricketer; does not favour T20 format

- On his memory of remembering phone numbers: Well quite interesting, Sundar seems to actually remember all the phone numbers in his childhood. Sundar says, when we were kids and there was no smartphone storage, my relatives would actually come up to me and ask for numbers, says Pichai.

- Harsha Bhogle begins rapid fire round.

- When did you buy your first phone: It was a Motorola phone

- First smartphone: 2006

- How many smartphone you have: 20-30 (laughs)

ALSO READ: Sundar Pichai at SRCC interaction: The Google CEO can be really witty

- Should coding made compulsory: Don't think but it should be strongly encouraged

- Your first software project: A rudimentary version of chess

- How much did you score in class 12: Not anything to get into SRCC (Witty enough)

- Where do you see Google in the next 30 years: We are still able to work on problems that bother people in day to day basis.

Session over.