Long before Google revolutionised how we navigate the web,
there was someone from Bihar who was already building one of the world’s earliest internet search engines. You might not know his name, but his impact on the digital world is undeniable.
Born in 1967 in Ranchi (then part of Bihar), Gunjan Sinha completed his B.Tech at IIT Delhi before moving to the U.S. to earn a master’s in Computer Engineering from UC Santa Cruz and a second master’s in Engineering Management from Stanford University.
In 1995, two years before Google’s launch of its search engine, Sinha co-founded WhoWhere?, one of the web’s pioneering search engines. It quickly became a cornerstone of early web navigation and was acquired in 1998 by Lycos Media (then the fourth most-visited platform on the internet) for $133 million.
In 1997, Sinha went on to co-found eGain, an AI-powered customer engagement and knowledge management software company that eventually went public on NASDAQ. Rather than chasing exits, he believed in solving complex, real-world problems at hand.
In 2007, Sinha was named one of the 13 Indian Americans among the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business”. He was also featured as one of the 50 most successful immigrant entrepreneurs by siliconindia.
Today, Sinha serves as the co-founder of Project Nanda: The Internet of AI Agents in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an initiative he envisions as the fundamental infrastructure for the next era of computing. He is also the chairman of OpenGrowth, a Palo Alto non-profit working alongside the UN Internet Governance Forum to bridge global disparities in digital access, workforce skills, healthcare, and education.
From pioneering web search before Google to shaping the frontier of AI agents with MIT and the United Nations, Gunjan Sinha’s journey stands as a powerful testament to Bihar’s enduring legacy of academic excellence and global innovation.
muskan singh
