NRI Day 2026: Top 8 famous NRIs who made India proud globally

Satya Nadella has been the Chairman of Microsoft since 2021 and has worked as the CEO of Microsoft since 2014. Born in Hyderabad, Nadella was an alumnus of the Manipal Institute of Technology. Satya Nadella and his family now live in Bellevue, Washington, America.

Born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet and one of the most successful NRIs. He has been serving as the CEO of Alphabet since 2018. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2022.

Indra Nooyi was an Indian-American businessman who served as the CEO of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2018. She is a board member of Amazon and ICC and has been named on Forbes, Fortune and Times several times as an influential businesswoman, powerful woman. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2007.

Lakshmi Mittal is an Indian businessman and steel magnate who is the Executive Chairman of Arcelor Mittal. Mittal is the first Indian to be listed in the top ten richest people on the Forbes list. As of 2025, Mittal's net worth is £15.444 billion.

Born in Punjab in 1926, Narinder Singh Kapany was an Indian-American physicist who is widely regarded as the “father of fibre optics” which forms the fundamental backbone of many modern technologies, particularly the internet. Forbes called him the unsung hero of the 20th century.

Sunita Williams is an Indian origin American astronaut who has spent more than 608 days in space. She is a NASA astronaut, and her nine spacewalks are the fourth overall and most by a woman, making her one of the most experienced spacewalker in history.

Amartya Sen is a Nobel Prize-winning Indian economist who revolutionised the model of development. Sen rejected the traditional parameters of development, like GDP and personal income of development. He, alongside Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, is credited with the development of the Human Development Index (HDI). He is regarded as the person who brought conscience back to his profession.