Google shake-up as Sundar Pichai takes over 'leadership of core products' from Larry Page

Page will continue to oversee the company's various 'moonshot products'

Sundar Pichai presents Android Wear, the company's smartwatch OS (Reuters)

Google CEO Larry Page is reportedly moving out of the spotlight at the internet giant to focus on “bigger picture” projects, with rising star Sundar Pichai set to lead development on all core Google products.

As US tech site Re/code reports, Pichai will now head up not only the company’s cash-cow ad products but also search, maps, Google+, commerce and infrastructure. This will be in addition to his current responsibility over Android, Chrome and Google’s apps.

Employees in these areas that reported to Page will now report to Pichai, while the CEO continues to run Google’s various ‘moonshot’ projects including its development labs Google X and its mysterious ‘anti-aging’ biotech company Calico.

The 42-year-old Pichai was born in Chennai, India, and completed his bachelor degree in Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur before moving to the US, attending Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania.

Pichai’s swift rise at a company of overachievers is notable and over at highbrow Q&A site Quora one user posed the question many will be thinking: what exactly has Pichai done to be consistently promoted above his peers?

The top answer – from a former Google product manager – is straightforward enough. Apart from being “incredibly talented and hardworking” Pichai has reportedly led “successful efforts for difficult projects that were core to Google's continued financial success”; recruited and retained talented engineers, and - perhaps most importantly - he's “avoided making enemies”.

If Pichai eventually proceeds to take the top job (after all, no-one stays CEO forever) then we have a bit of an idea what Page will be up to.

A report this September suggests that the co-founder has already set up a “company within a company” dubbed “Google 2.0” to secure the tech giant’s long-term future, and has plans for expansion into new areas that could even include building "a model airport and city".