Google denies hiring 16-year-old Indian boy for over Rs23 million a year

Multiple Indian publications reported that Google had hired Harshit Sharma for an icon designing programme

Sometimes certain things feel too good to be true because they aren’t true. For example, the much-publicised story about a 16-year-old Indian student 'landing' a dream job at Google.

On Tuesday, multiple Indian publications citing official release by the Union Territory (UT) administration reported that tech giant Google had hired Harshit Sharma from Chandigarh, India for an icon designing programme.

However, the company has denied having any record of Sharma’s candidacy. “Currently, we don’t have any information on our records with respect to Harshit Sharma’s candidacy,” the search giant told The Indian Express.



Following the Google’s statement, the UT administration has started an inquiry into how an official statement about Sharma’s “achievement” on July 29 was released.

The UT administration's statement had claimed Sharma, who completed Class 12 earlier this year, has been selected for Google’s special programme, and will be leaving for the US later this month.

It said the student will be given training for a year, with a stipend of INR400,000 per month. Upon completion of his training, the teenager will receive a monthly salary of INR1.2 million (approximately Rs1.97 million), which will translate into INR14.4 million (Rs23 million).

Hindustan Times published the text of the original press release issued by the UT administration:

Department of Public Relations, Chandigarh Administration

Press Release, Chandigarh, 29th July 2017

A student of GMSSS-33D, Chandigarh Class-XII (I.T.) stream, Harshit has been selected for graphic designing by Google. He will be trained for Graphic designing for an initial period of one year and will receive a stipend of 04 lacs per month. After completion of his training he will get remuneration of 12 lacs per month. He went for online interview through video conferencing and was selected on the basis of posters designed by him while doing class 12th under the supervision of his teachers. His achievements will act as a morale booster for other students and they will be inspired to make forays into this field. Principal, Mrs. Indra Beniwal congratulated Harshit on his remarkable achievement and lauded the efforts of his teachers also.

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