Sundar Pichai’s appointment this month as chief executive of the newly rejigged Google prompted happy outpourings across India. The US technology group will still be controlled by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But Mr Pichai’s rise to become their most senior lieutenant seemed to confirm the considerable achievements of India’s global diaspora.
上月，桑德爾皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)被錄用為方才重組的谷歌(Google)的首席履行官，這一新聞在印度激發了一片歡躍。這家美國科技團體將仍由其開創人拉裏槧奇(Larry Page)和謝爾蓋布林(Sergey Brin)掌管，不外皮查伊提升為二人第一流其余幫手，仿佛證明了天下各地的印度外僑獲得的卓著造詣。
Pride in eminent expatriates is common across developing economies. But it is especially warranted in India, whose émigrés have achieved great prominence in the US. Mr Pichai’s promotion follows a handful of others: Satya Nadella, for instance, who last year took the helm at Microsoft; or former Google executive Nikesh Arora, now heir presumptive at SoftBank, the Japanese telecoms group.
令各成長中經濟體自滿的出色外僑習以為常，但印度更有來由自滿——印度外僑在美國獲得了煊赫的造詣。早在皮查伊提升前，已有幾位印度人身居要職：好比客歲接掌微軟(Microsoft)的薩蒂亞納德拉(Satya Nadella)，和前谷歌高管、現為日本電信團體軟銀(SoftBank)假設繼續人的尼克什阿羅拉(Nikesh Arora)。
More interesting, though, are the wider accomplishments of Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.
但是，更風趣的是，印度企業家在矽谷獲得了更加普遍的造詣。
At first this looks counterintuitive. Indians have a strong reputation as software developers, dating back to the first wave who arrived armed with elite engineering degrees in the 1980s. But that same group has since gone on a less heralded journey, outpacing once-dominant communities from Taiwan and China, to become the US’s most technologically entrepreneurial immigrants as well.
起先，這仿佛與人們的直覺相悖。自20世紀80年月第一批具有名牌院校工程學學位的精英抵達美國起，印度人作為軟件開辟者一向榮譽煊赫。但人們沒有推測的是，這批人還趕超了一度占領統治位置的台灣和中國大陸移民群體，成了美國最具科技創業精力的移民。
Today the contest is not even close. Immigrants either founded or co-founded around four in 10 Silicon Valley businesses between 2006 and 2012, according to the Kauffman Foundation — itself a remarkable statistic. Of those immigrant-founded companies, however, roughly a third were launched by Indians. The next most successful group, the Chinese, accounted for 5 per cent.
現在這場競賽已拉開了顯著的差距。據考夫曼基金會(Kauffman Foundation)統計，2006年至2012年間，矽谷每10家企業中，有約莫4家的開創人或結合開創人是外來移民。而這些移民創立的公司中，約有三分之一由印度人提議。緊隨厥後的群體是中國人，占比5%。
Indian immigrants in the US are numerous, highly educated and speak excellent English. This adds up to a powerful trio of traits that other foreign arrivals struggle to match, according to political scientist Devesh Kapur, co-author of a forthcoming book on the diaspora. As a result, Indians do well across corporate America, bagging top roles at blue-chip companies and Wall Street banks, and making Hinduism the country’s wealthiest religion per capita.
美國的印度移民數目宏大，教導水平高，說著流暢的英語。政治學家德韋什慍湓爾(Devesh Kapur，他與人合著的關於僑民的書本行將出書)表現，這三種壯大的上風集於一身使其他僑民難以對抗。是以，印度人在美國企業界的日子都過得不錯，在藍籌公司和華爾街的銀行更是身居高位，還使印度教成了美國人均最充裕的宗教。
Yet this alone does not explain why they prosper in the technology sector, a phenomenon with deeper roots in the experience of the early engineers who first moved to California. Back then, employment at established tech companies came easily. But those who tried to launch start-ups found life more difficult, struggling to raise venture capital in particular.
但是，僅僅這一點並不克不及說明為什麽印度人在科技業如斯青雲直上，這一征象更深層的緣故原由源於從前第一批移民加州的工程師。其時，想被著名科技公司雇傭非常輕易。而那些試圖創業的人卻發明生存要艱苦很多，想要籌集危害本錢特別艱苦。
The lesson drawn by these pioneers, says Vivek Wadhwa, entrepreneur and Stanford University fellow, was that you had to stick together. “The first crop of Indian entrepreneurs all had similar stories of being held back by a tech system dominated by white Americans,” he says. Those who succeeded, such as Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, became linchpins in a support system for their fellow nationals, ranging from formal business groups to ad hoc networks for mentoring and funding. “They decided they needed to help each other out.”
企業家、斯坦福大學(Stanford University)研討員維韋克瓦德瓦(Vivek Wadhwa)稱，這些前驅總結的履歷是，眾人必需聯結同心專心。“第一批印度創業者都有相似的閱歷——在由美國白人統治的科技體系被打壓，”他說道。那些勝利者，好比太陽盤算機體系公司(Sun Microsystems)的結合開創人維諾德科斯拉(Vinod Khosla)，在印度同胞的合作系統中起著癥結感化。這個合作系統從正式的企業團體到暫時的導師和融資收集包羅萬象。“他們決議必需相互贊助能力脫穎而出。”
Nowadays, Indian executives are over-represented across Silicon Valley, especially at businesses that prize engineering talent, such as Google. But while the original need to break into the tech sector has passed, their habits of mutual support persists. Mr Pichai seems to embody this culture too, given the way colleagues describe him as technically brilliant, but also kind and helpful to others.
現在，矽谷的印度裔高管已數不外來了，特別是在像谷歌如許高度看重工程技巧人材的企業。但是，只管印度人再也不須要像最初那樣打入科技業，他們互幫合作的習氣仍舊持續著。皮查伊身上仿佛也表現著這類文化。同事口中的他不但有技巧才幹，並且為人和睦、樂於助人。
It might seem surprising that this kind of clubbing together was necessary. Silicon Valley is celebrated for its dense networks of funders and entrepreneurs. Evangelists portray the area as the ultimate open economic system; a freewheeling technological meritocracy, in which outsiders are welcome and good ideas rise to the top.
大概使人受驚的是，這類“抱團”頗有需要。矽谷以其麋集的投資人和企業家人脈收集而著稱。宣傳者將這裏描寫成最終開放經濟系統——一個自由自在的技巧型精英治理系統。這裏迎接外來者，任何好點子都能遭到高度看重。
That is at best a half-fiction. The tech sector is not always collegiate, as recent revelations about Amazon’s work practices made clear. The same point is driven home by the anxious founders and backbiting coders of hit HBO comedy Silicon Valley .
上面的描寫往好了說也是半假造的。矽谷的科技業並不是老是學院式的——比來暴光的亞馬遜(Amazon)內部事情作風將這點原形畢露。HBO的熱點笑劇《矽谷》(Silicon Valley)中焦炙的創業者和相互誹謗的法式員也一樣揭露了這一點。
Above all, successful innovators also tend to have the best contacts, opening closed doors to money and support. Those without access — foreigners, for instance, or women — must break into established networks or create others. And more than any other group of outsiders, it was the Indians who figured out that, to make it in start-up land, it helps to have a social network of your own.
最主要的是，勝利的立異者每每也具有最佳的人脈，這就打開了本來緊閉的資金和支撐的大門。那些沒有途徑的人——好比外國人大概女性——必需打入現有的人脈收集，大概創立新的收集。比起其他外來群體，印度人更明確這個事理——想在這片創業之地得到勝利，最佳樹立屬於本身的交際收集。
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