4 ms·

Just checked his wiki page. I always thought his would be a more humble story than most Indian IT titans since he went to Manipal rather than one of the IITs, b

by rudiv 7y ago

Just checked his wiki page. I always thought his would be a more humble story than most Indian IT titans since he went to Manipal rather than one of the IITs, but turns out his dad was an IAS officer. Interesting tidbit.

fxfan 7y ago
What's IAS? Is it a big deal?
- blntechie 7y ago
  IAS is Indian Administrative Services. It means his dad most likely worked as a top level bureaucrat in the government and was relatively privileged.
  - puranjay 7y ago
    "relatively" is underselling it. Indian IAS officers are basically modern day nobility.
    - dhruvarora013 7y ago
      That is definitely an oversell. An entry level IAS officer makes Rs. 56100[1] which is about 800 USD a month. Definitely not an amount to scoff at in India but not even close to a level of privilege that would make you the CEO of a trillion-dollar company. Satya has two advanced degrees from US Institutions and has worked at Microsoft for over 27 years. I think his father has had very little to do with his current stature. [1] https://www.clearias.com/salary-of-an-ias-officer/ https://www.clearias.com/salary-of-an-ias-officer/
      - puranjay 7y ago
        The original statement was about Nadella's own privileged background. No one is arguing that an IAS officer is more privileged than the CEO of Microsoft. As an aside, salary is just about the worst way to evaluate power and privilege of government officials. By that metric, an AVP at Google is more privileged than the President of the United States.
      - telltruth 7y ago
        Getting education in US as a foreign student from 3rd world country typically requires existence of rich parents.
      - kamaal 7y ago
        That's like splitting hairs. C'mon. On the job perks include Free accommodation, chauffeured cars, pensions, maids, bribes, pensions, plot buying opportunities in top govt layouts and peons to do everything including for something as simple as forwarding a memo. Heck bribes itself can set your 7 generations for a life time of nobility. There is a reason why people waste years behind cracking these exams.
- ignoramous 7y ago
  If you're a corrupt IAS officer, you're a big deal: https://www.quora.com/Can-an-IAS-officer-earn-in-crore https://www.quora.com/Can-an-IAS-officer-earn-in-crore If you're not, you are still a big deal, on a different scale.
- intended 7y ago
  Relatively, The gov of India has a cadre or trained bureaucrats, who are selected after passing a rigorous exam. Its a check on your real world thinking skills in many ways. The exam is hard, and people spend years to ensure they get through. The people who pass are sent to the foreign services, admin services, and police services. IAS officers have over the years earned a rep for being capable bureaucrats (modulo the level of noise coming from a massive developing World population dealing with issues ranging from poverty to corruption). These are the people who run municipalities for what would be high populations cities in the west, secretaries to ministers and so on. They don’t have money, but they are the nerves and ligaments of state machinery.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
truncate 7y ago
A lot of people (from every kind of background) come to the US and work. I would say someone dad's being an IAS would have almost zero impact on stepping up in the career ladder in a US tech company, however, being from a prestigious university gives one a strong network and connections.
- kamaal 7y ago
  >>I would say someone dad's being an IAS would have almost zero impact on stepping up in the career ladder in a US tech company That's like saying, having an IAS father makes no impact for someone wanting to be a top doctor in the US. In reality having an IAS dad means having access to tuitions, mentoring, ability to afford a whole lot of other things like say education in a foreign university etc etc. Most kids don't have access to this because they have to work immediately after they finish their education in India, or worse have to work through their education. There is no one back home providing financial support to your family. There is also pressure to send money back home, or handle other responsibilities(eg. Marrying off a sister). Each of these things gradually drive to last straw on the Camel's back for a lot of people. There is only that much you can do in life when you have n things demanding your attention, and resources all at the time when you should be focusing on working on that career.
  - truncate 7y ago
    I expected someone would make such response, and that is exactly why I was talking about people who already made it to US, and talk of that demographic. I by no means, am comparing him with the guy who took a job at Infosys, or he couldn't pursue a masters or get a less paying job at startup for the reasons you mentioned. That said, we are also making this huge presumption that since his dad is an IAS, he must have have shitload of money for US tuitions and rest. This isn't possible with normal salary, unless of course he is corrupted, and I find it distasteful to deduce something like that about someone specific. It is one thing to say most IAS are not honest, and it's another thing to insinuate that this particular IAS isn't honest. We all try to make best of whatever situation we are in, and most of us (at-least I most likely) wouldn't achieve what he did even with 100x resources (lack of hard work, motivation, making excuses to ourselves). Let's not undermine that by saying "there is only that much you can do in life when you have n things demanding your attention".

by rudiv 7y ago

fxfan 7y ago

What's IAS? Is it a big deal?

blntechie 7y ago
IAS is Indian Administrative Services. It means his dad most likely worked as a top level bureaucrat in the government and was relatively privileged.
- puranjay 7y ago
  "relatively" is underselling it. Indian IAS officers are basically modern day nobility.
  - dhruvarora013 7y ago
    That is definitely an oversell. An entry level IAS officer makes Rs. 56100[1] which is about 800 USD a month. Definitely not an amount to scoff at in India but not even close to a level of privilege that would make you the CEO of a trillion-dollar company. Satya has two advanced degrees from US Institutions and has worked at Microsoft for over 27 years. I think his father has had very little to do with his current stature. [1] https://www.clearias.com/salary-of-an-ias-officer/ https://www.clearias.com/salary-of-an-ias-officer/
    - puranjay 7y ago
      The original statement was about Nadella's own privileged background. No one is arguing that an IAS officer is more privileged than the CEO of Microsoft. As an aside, salary is just about the worst way to evaluate power and privilege of government officials. By that metric, an AVP at Google is more privileged than the President of the United States.
    - telltruth 7y ago
      Getting education in US as a foreign student from 3rd world country typically requires existence of rich parents.
    - kamaal 7y ago
      That's like splitting hairs. C'mon. On the job perks include Free accommodation, chauffeured cars, pensions, maids, bribes, pensions, plot buying opportunities in top govt layouts and peons to do everything including for something as simple as forwarding a memo. Heck bribes itself can set your 7 generations for a life time of nobility. There is a reason why people waste years behind cracking these exams.
ignoramous 7y ago
If you're a corrupt IAS officer, you're a big deal: https://www.quora.com/Can-an-IAS-officer-earn-in-crore https://www.quora.com/Can-an-IAS-officer-earn-in-crore If you're not, you are still a big deal, on a different scale.
intended 7y ago
Relatively, The gov of India has a cadre or trained bureaucrats, who are selected after passing a rigorous exam. Its a check on your real world thinking skills in many ways. The exam is hard, and people spend years to ensure they get through. The people who pass are sent to the foreign services, admin services, and police services. IAS officers have over the years earned a rep for being capable bureaucrats (modulo the level of noise coming from a massive developing World population dealing with issues ranging from poverty to corruption). These are the people who run municipalities for what would be high populations cities in the west, secretaries to ministers and so on. They don’t have money, but they are the nerves and ligaments of state machinery.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

truncate 7y ago

A lot of people (from every kind of background) come to the US and work. I would say someone dad's being an IAS would have almost zero impact on stepping up in the career ladder in a US tech company, however, being from a prestigious university gives one a strong network and connections.

kamaal 7y ago
>>I would say someone dad's being an IAS would have almost zero impact on stepping up in the career ladder in a US tech company That's like saying, having an IAS father makes no impact for someone wanting to be a top doctor in the US. In reality having an IAS dad means having access to tuitions, mentoring, ability to afford a whole lot of other things like say education in a foreign university etc etc. Most kids don't have access to this because they have to work immediately after they finish their education in India, or worse have to work through their education. There is no one back home providing financial support to your family. There is also pressure to send money back home, or handle other responsibilities(eg. Marrying off a sister). Each of these things gradually drive to last straw on the Camel's back for a lot of people. There is only that much you can do in life when you have n things demanding your attention, and resources all at the time when you should be focusing on working on that career.
- truncate 7y ago
  I expected someone would make such response, and that is exactly why I was talking about people who already made it to US, and talk of that demographic. I by no means, am comparing him with the guy who took a job at Infosys, or he couldn't pursue a masters or get a less paying job at startup for the reasons you mentioned. That said, we are also making this huge presumption that since his dad is an IAS, he must have have shitload of money for US tuitions and rest. This isn't possible with normal salary, unless of course he is corrupted, and I find it distasteful to deduce something like that about someone specific. It is one thing to say most IAS are not honest, and it's another thing to insinuate that this particular IAS isn't honest. We all try to make best of whatever situation we are in, and most of us (at-least I most likely) wouldn't achieve what he did even with 100x resources (lack of hard work, motivation, making excuses to ourselves). Let's not undermine that by saying "there is only that much you can do in life when you have n things demanding your attention".