It’s Smart To Learn Hindi: Zoho Co-Founder Sparks Fresh Debate With Tip For Workers In Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has stoked the flames of an ongoing debate by advising engineers and entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu to learn Hindi for career advancement.

Recently, a war of words broke out between Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the three-language scheme under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Stalin accused the Centre of attempting to thrust Hindi down the throats of people in his state and even warned with dire consequences.

Vembu took to ‘X’ and stated: “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.”

Zoho, a multinational tech company that makes computer software and web-based business tools, registered a revenue of US$ 1 billion in FY23. The company has over 15,000 employees and the bulk of its support operations are carried out from the Chennai office.

“It is smart for us to learn Hindi. I have learned to read Hindi haltingly in the last five 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,” Vembu added in his post.

Since the post got published on Wednesday, it has accumulated over 1.4 million views. While some have taken up cudgels against Vembu, asking whether he would now advise employees to learn Korean or Japanese as the company has customers there as well. Another viewer has asked why customers should not be asked to learn languages like Tamil, Telugu or Kannada as most of the software firms are located in Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Chennai.

Vembu has received support as well. Several viewers have appreciated his views. “Completely agree. On the professional front, I have worked across India. And learning Hindi as a second language really helped me to interact with people across India,” one of them shared.

Another said: “Knowing multiple languages isn’t just a skill – it’s an asset that breaks down regional and political barriers. The more, the better.”