There is no truth to that as it will be difficult for Indians to know which caste another person is from if they are both not from the same place. For example, I am from eastern India and I have no clue if Sundar Pichai is Brahmin or not as he is from southern India.

So, you can't, for example, type "pichai surname caste" into google?

You can but that might not yield the result, Because the surname isn't associated with his caste, It is his father's name which is "Pichai Sundararajan", Yes he got his grandfather's name, In tamil (which is his mother tounge) the word for Grandson is "Peyaran", it roughly translates in english to "Namer".

Unlike the commenter 'dmod' above, I am from the same state as sundar pichai, So i can sort of figure out his caste, But never bothered to conform. Because as 'dmode' says interest in caste is not really something that is prevelant among yonger indians.

But as i am getting older i am interested in caste, But that is more like old people getting curious about their ancestory and going to 23Andme.

Interest in caste is not really something that is prevelant among younger and educated Indians.

That's not what awakeasleep asked.

Surnames are often associated with caste. They are not 100% aligned but combined with other information a prospective employer would have available it would be possible to identify caste in many cases. And of course they could find out through other channels/networks as well.

Nepotism and caste favoritsm is rampant in India. Let's not pretend it goes away once on US soil.

It would be no surprise if people of Brahmin caste would try to downplay this.

What are these sources? If you can share.