Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail, has landed in hot water over his controversial remarks on India’s engineering education system, the formula for success, money, and more.

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Speaking in a podcast, Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail, raised concern over Indian engineers, saying, ''99% of Indian engineering graduates don't actually do engineering work.''

Bhatia's remarks garnered limelight with many googling who Sabeer Bhatia is, and exactly what he said about Indian engineers.

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Flagging a lack of practical skills among Indian engineers, Bhatia questioned their creativity and work ethic.

In the podcast, Bhatia said: "99 per cent of Indians who graduate as engineers join management and start giving gyaan to everybody. Where is the work ethic, where they really work with their hands and really go and build some stuff?"

Bhatia also criticized Indian business tycoons, accusing them of focusing on outsourcing rather than developing original software.

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“We celebrate people who promote body shopping, not original software. Somehow, they become India's software gurus—despite not writing any code themselves,” he said. 

Stressing the need to value technical skills, he said, “Till we change our work ethic and we actually start doing work with our own hands and start respecting people who write software, who write code, who do things, or who think about these problems in a critical way… we've got to change the education system.”

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Backlash on Sabeer Bhatia's comments

Since Bhatia’s remarks went viral on social media, several netizens, including public figures, have slammed the businessman. Namita Thapar, Executive Director at Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Shark Tank India judge, criticized him for his comments.

Thapar said that it is easy to ''give gyan'' after moving to another country. 

"Please note that its easy to move to another country and give gyan but the real impact and challenge lies in staying in your own country and facilitating change!" 

Who is Sabeer Bhatia?

Born in Chandigarh, India, Bhatia is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded the world’s first free web-based email service, Hotmail.com (now Outlook.com), along with his partner Jack Smith.

By 1997, Hotmail had over a million users. Despite being one of the biggest email services in the world, it struggled to generate revenue due to its free model. In 1997, Bhatia sold Hotmail to tech giant Microsoft for $400 million.

Personal Background

Bhatia’s father, Baldev Bhatia, was an officer in the Indian Army, and his mother, Daman Bhatia, worked at the Central Bank of India. He completed his early education in Bengaluru and earned his undergraduate degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani.

He later pursued further studies at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. He also briefly worked at Apple.

As of 2024, Bhatia's net worth is estimated to be approximately $300 million.