With Indian-American
Satya Nadella making it to the top job at Microsoft, many at his alma-mater Manipal Institute of Technology celebrated on Twitter, saying this goes against the perception that only students from India's premier institutions - Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - make it to the top.
(Read: Satya Nadella's collegial style sparks Microsoft hope)
"Nadella becomes Microsoft CEO. MIT wins over IIT-KGP #MoralVictory #OkaySorry #Manipal (sic)," tweeted Tanmay Srivastava, a student from Manipal Institute of Technology.
"Interesting that new Microsoft #CEO is from Manipal & not IIT. No taxpayer funded education for #SatyaNadella . More MITs needed?, (sic)" tweeted a person named Sanjay.
"Satya Nadella's elevation will do wonders to the Manipal brand. For once, a business hyper-achiever is not an IIT alum (sic)," tweeted Vivek Sengupta. (
Read: Satya Nadella's elevation an inspiration, say Indian business leaders)
Born and raised in Hyderabad, Mr Nadella, 46, studied at Hyderabad Public School and earned his engineering degree from the Manipal Institute of Technology. (
Read: You owe us a visit, says Manipal University to famous alum Satya Nadella)
"Satya's case should be an eye-opener to parents who are obsessed with brands like IIT, IIM because he is neither of the two and am sure his parents did not obsess over it. They allowed him space to blossom in whatever route he took," said Colonel RS Khatri, principal, Hyderabad public school.
Students of IIT, however, downplayed the reactions.
"It is a kind of Twitter war that's going on between the MITians and the IITians. Frankly speaking, this is overrated. We have seen that there have been eminent personalities emerging from both MIT and IITs and even in some cases the state universities," said Himanshu Pandey, a student of IIT Kanpur.
"I don't think that to be successful, you just have to be an IITian. Like, IIT can give you sufficient condition to be successful but it is not the necessary condition," said another IIT Kanpur student Abhimanyu Arora.
Be it IIT, MIT or any other institute of excellence, achievers like Mr Nadella - who is now only the third leader in the 300-billion dollar software company's 38-year history - make India proud.