Musk appreciated the list and replied by terming it “impressive”. The list included:

• CEO of Alphabet (parent of Google): Sundar Pichai – Born in Madurai, Tamil, India

• CEO of Microsoft: Satya Nadella – Born in Hyderabad, India

• CEO of YouTube: Neal Mohan – Born in Lafayette, Indiana, USA to an Indian-origin family

• CEO of Adobe: Shantanu Narayen – Born in Hyderabad, India

• CEO of World Bank Group: Ajay Banga – Born in Pune, India

• CEO of IBM: Arvind Krishna – Born in Andhra Pradesh, India

• CEO of Albertsons: Vivek Sankaran – Born in India

• CEO of NetApp: George Kurian – Born in Kerala, India

• CEO of Palo Alto Networks: Nikesh Arora – Born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

• CEO of Arista Networks: Jayshree Ullal – Born in London, England to an Indian origin family

• CEO of Novartis: Vasant Narasimhan – Born in Pittsburgh, USA to an Indian-origin family

• CEO of Starbucks: Laxman Narasimhan – Born in Pune, India

• CEO of Micron Technology: Sanjay Mehrotra – Born in Kanpur, India

• CEO of Flex: Revathi Advaithi – Born in India

• CEO of Wayfair: Niraj Shah -Born to an India-origin family

• CEO of Chanel: Leena Nair – Kolhapur, Maharashtra

• CEO of OnlyFans: Amrapali Gan (Indian-born) was replaced by Keily Blair in July

• CEO of Motorola Mobility: Sanjay Jha – Born in Bihar, India

• CEO of Cognizant: Ravi Kumar S -Born in India

• CEO of Vimeo: Anjali Sud – Born in Michigan, USA to an Indian-origin family

Opinions split among netizens

Nevertheless, the post faced scrutiny as the community notes of X flagged the post, accompanied by a comment saying that the CEO of YouTube is an American hailing from Indiana. Additionally, it was noted that the CEO of Vimeo is an American from Detroit, and the CEO of Chanel holds British-American citizenship. These prompted a division among netizens, prompting them to take sides in the comment section.

“CommunityNotes do you guys even read what’s in the links you add or do you just post it and go? 2 out of 3 people you listed as non-Indian were born in India, 3 person was a child of Indian immigrants. If that doesn’t count as being Indian then from now on call me Martian and I own Mars,” a user replied.

However, another user disagreed with the post, saying that nationality is determined by legal affiliation, not birthplace. “It doesn’t matter if they were born in India, if they are Americans, they’re Americans, that’s just how it works. If you wanna point out their “heritage” then you gotta say that, but they’re just not Indian by law.”

Who are people of Indian origin?

According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, a person of Indian origin is one who falls in any of the given criteria:

1. A foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal) who at any time held an Indian passport

2. Who or either of their parents/grandparents/ great grandparents were born and permanently resident in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any of the aforesaid countries ( as referred above);

3. Who is a spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO