Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu bats for learning Hindi, sparks row
The Hindu
Zoho Founder Sridhar Vembu sparks debate by advocating for Tamil Nadu engineers to learn Hindi for business growth.
Zoho Founder Sridhar Vembu sparked a row, while pitching for people in the State to learn Hindi.
“As Zoho grows rapidly in India, we have rural engineers in Tamil Nadu working closely with customers in Mumbai and Delhi - so much of our business is driven from these cities and from Gujarat. Rural jobs in Tamil Nadu depend on us serving those customers well. Not knowing Hindi is often a serious handicap for us in Tamil Nadu,” he pointed out in a post on X.
“It is smart for us to learn Hindi. I have learned to read Hindi haltingly in the last 5 years and I can now understand about 20% of what is spoken. As India is a fast growing economy, engineers and entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu will be smart to learn Hindi. Ignore the politics, let us learn the language!,” Mr. Vembu said.
His post sparked a debate and row on X.
Responding to Mr. Vembu, DMK MP M. M. Abdulla wondered how Zoho expanded its business in Saudi Arabia without learning Arabic. “So, why are you insisting that Tamils must learn Hindi?” he asked.
“We also have engineers working with Middle East based companies and our counterparts in those companies are very often Indians too (Malayalees and Tamils often and also Hindi/Urdu speakers). Hindi/Urdu are actually extremely helpful in the Middle East too, apart from Malayalam and Tamil. We also have Arabic speakers in Chennai to work with those Middle East customers who need Arabic support,” Mr. Vembu responded.
Mr. Abdulla and Vembu had a heated debate over the issue on X.
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