It's The Indian CEO Virus, No Vaccine Against It: Anand Mahindra On Parag Agrawal Becoming Twitter CEO

The world has taken note of the growing list of global firms headed by people of Indian origin after Twitter announced the appointment of Parag Agrawal as its CEO.

Anand Mahindra Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra Group.(File Photo/ Getty)

Mumbai: From Elon Musk to Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra, the world has taken note of the growing list of global firms headed by people of Indian origin after Twitter announced the appointment of Parag Agrawal as its CEO, amplifying the role played by immigrants in the world's largest technology companies.

"This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It's the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it," said Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra in a tweet.

This is one pandemic that we are happy & proud to say originated in India. It’s the Indian CEO Virus… No vaccine against it. 😊 https://t.co/Dl28r7nu0u

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 29, 2021

Among the most prominent leaders of Indian origin in the United States are Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, Arvind Krishna of International Business Machines, and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, the parent firm of Google. Together, they are in charge of enterprises with a total market value of about $5 trillion.

"USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!" Musk said in reply to a tweet by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, recognising the Asian country as one of the world's richest pools of tech talent.

USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2021

Collison, in his tweet, said, "Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants."

Outside the technology space, Indra Nooyi was the CEO of PepsiCo for 12 years, while Ajay Banga is the executive chairman of Mastercard after serving as CEO for a decade.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced his departure from the firm on Monday. Dorsey oversaw the social network during Donald Trump's administration, as well as surviving an activist investor's expulsion bid in 2020.

Dorsey stated in his message to the employees that Parag Agrawal was behind every major decision and had helped turn the firm around. "He leads with heart and soul and is someone I learn from daily. My trust in him as our CEO is bone-deep," Dorsey said about Agrawal.

In a note to the company, expressing deep gratitude for outgoing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and team, Parag Agrawal said, "The world is watching us now, even more than they have done before. Let's show the world Twitter's true potential!"

Agrawal takes over as CEO of Twitter when the business is attempting to move away from free speech conflicts and toward growth. He joined Twitter in 2011 and was promoted to Chief Technology Officer in 2017.