8/4/2019 Narayana Murthy Top Ten Answers

1/3

Narayana Murthy, Infosys Chairman

-I want to be known as a fair person

CARINGfor people comes naturally toInfosys Chairman NR Narayana Murthy.

At the very last minute, he realised that

this interview with Maheshwer Peri of

Careers360 clashed with an important

internal meeting. But the engineer by

training would rather reschedule the

meeting than the interview. A stickler for

his word, Narayana Murthy discussesaffirmative actions, premium schooling

and the mantras that drive his life

Q. You are one of those students who

actually couldnt afford IIT. What is

your advice to students who cant

afford quality education?A. I think today in India, the quality of education at second tier colleges in engineering,medicine, science etc., has improved enormously. At the end of the day, in life, more than what

degree you get from what college, whats important is whether you have discipline, commitment,

hard work, focus and, of course, a little bit of smartness. So, Id suggest to students not to worryabout which college they go to as long as they get the best out of whatever education they are

being given.

Q. Do you think your future would have been something else had you gone to IIT at the

very first go?A. I personally dont think your future depends on which college you go to. For example,DonaldKnuth, one of the most famous computer scientists, went toCase Institute of Technology for his

first degree, which is a not a No. 1 university. But he is probably one of the finest computer

scientists. So I feel youngsters should not get too worried, if they can utilise 99% of the

opportunities given in college.

Q. Is there any difference in the value system and expectations between that of your

generation and todays?A. I believe that each generation is better than the previous one. Therefore, I believe that themodern day boys and girls are much better than my generation of boys and girls. They have more

opportunities, more channels to learn from, they have much more competition, they have higher

aspirations. Therefore the youngsters of today are definitely better than the youngsters of my

generation.

https://careers.infosys.com/Careerplus/aspx/homepage.aspxhttps://careers.infosys.com/Careerplus/aspx/homepage.aspxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttp://www.case.edu/http://www.case.edu/http://www.case.edu/http://www.case.edu/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuthhttps://careers.infosys.com/Careerplus/aspx/homepage.aspx

8/4/2019 Narayana Murthy Top Ten Answers

2/3

Q. Infosys some time back came up with a project to train underprivileged kids for

software development etc. How is the project going?

A. We had a project to help scheduled caste and scheduled tribe youngsters become marketworthy for obtaining jobs as software engineers. These were all engineers who had certain

percentage of marks and we wanted to demonstrate that these youngsters are as good as any and

better than many. Therefore we mounted a special programme, special because it was about 89

boys and girls from Karnataka Engineering colleges, we gave them certain scholarships and the

programme was for eight months and so. It was very intensive.

I told them right at the beginning of the programme that it was a historic experiment that will

prove that they were no less than anybody else. What was very impressive was that every one of

those 89 kids accepted that challenge and at the end of the exercise 84 out of 89 kids got jobs

using normal competitive recruitment procedure fromInfosys,IBMWipro,TCSand many-many

companies. This experiment proved that if we can provide the required level of attention, if wecan raise the confidence of those youngsters, if we can ensure that they have decent study

facilities, nutrition, access to books, hostel facilities, they will perform as good as any.

Q. Lots of students from India go for foreign education and also settle down abroad at

times. Was it good for India and is it good for India now?A. Well, my view is that in a nation of 1.2 billion people, we need a small percentage of smartIndians to go outside to succeed there and conduct themselves as good citizens of that society.

This way the respect for India will go up. Look at how the people who went from India to the US

became very successful in the Silicon Valley. These people have raised the image of India

tremendously. Look at people like Indira Nooyi, Rajat Gupta, Gururaj Deshpandey, Kanwal

Rekhi. Many of these people, by their entrepreneurship, managerial talent, leadership talent, haveraised the image of India. So, I am all for a certain percentage of Indians to go outside, succeed

there, conduct themselves as good citizens and raise the image of India.

Q. Do you ever think that engineers are actually betraying the profession by just getting

into coding?A. No, today for example in the US whether you are an engineering, physics or economicsstudent, most of them end up in Wall Street. Why? Because it gives good salaries. So, there is

nothing wrong in our youngsters aspiring for high salaries and it so happens that the IT industry

in India gives them good jobs with disposable income. The solution to tackling this problem is to

produce even larger number of engineers so that we have engineers to build bridges, we have

engineers to build power plants, we have engineers to build shipyards, we have engineers towork in factories etc.

Q. Will we see you being a teacher in the future?A. Even today, I do give several lectures every year. I have, you know, spent some time atStanford Graduate School of Business and given some lectures. Ive given lectures at Indiasmanagement schools at Bangalore, Ahmedabad. But I dont know whether Ill do it in a

structured manner, because right now I am very busy and travel a lot too.

http://www.infosys.com/pages/index.aspxhttp://www.infosys.com/pages/index.aspxhttp://www.infosys.com/pages/index.aspxhttp://www.ibm.com/in/en/http://www.ibm.com/in/en/http://www.wipro.in/http://www.wipro.in/http://www.wipro.in/http://www.tcs.com/homepage/Pages/default.aspxhttp://www.tcs.com/homepage/Pages/default.aspxhttp://www.tcs.com/homepage/Pages/default.aspxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valleyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valleyhttp://www.careers360.com/news/3978-India-s-best-students-who-became-CEOshttp://www.careers360.com/news/3978-India-s-best-students-who-became-CEOshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajat_Guptahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajat_Guptahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gururaj_Deshpandehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gururaj_Deshpandehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwal_Rekhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwal_Rekhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwal_Rekhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwal_Rekhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanwal_Rekhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gururaj_Deshpandehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajat_Guptahttp://www.careers360.com/news/3978-India-s-best-students-who-became-CEOshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valleyhttp://www.tcs.com/homepage/Pages/default.aspxhttp://www.wipro.in/http://www.ibm.com/in/en/http://www.infosys.com/pages/index.aspx

8/4/2019 Narayana Murthy Top Ten Answers

3/3

Q. Have your professional achievements given you more satisfaction vis--vis non-

professional projects?A. No, I think anything that can bring smile on to the face of people is what makes me happy.For example, Ive gone and participated in Akshyapatra activities in different cities and when

you see youngsters, school children, they eat well and are smiling, they are happy and I think,

there it is.

Q. Did you not tell your father-in-law you wanted to be politician..A. No, those were different days. I was a strong leftist then. I wanted to be a politician and all ofthat, but I think, you know, I have realised that I have other interests and therefore thats not my

priority at this stage.

Q. Is Infosys, the biggest legacy that you are leaving behind? A. No, I think as long as people say he was a fair person, thats sufficient. I want to be known asa fair person. Nothing more matters.

Q. You wanted to do a PhD some time back. Is the dream still on?A. No, I think Im too old. But my son is doing it, so I am happy.

Q. Who were your biggest influences during your student days?A. Well, I had excellent teachers. I had a wonderful teacher in high school - Mr. KV Narayan -he was the headmaster of the Shardavilla High School in Mysore. I had an extraordinary

professor in Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Engineering - Dr. N Krishnamurti.

There have been many teachers. Of course, my parents had tremendous influence. They were the

ones who taught us the importance of good values; they lived those values so absolutely.

Q. Your advice to students

A. We are in an extraordinary time in the history of India. For the first time in 300 years Indiahas received recognition from the developed nations, for the first time India has something tocontribute to the global bazaar. Our economy is growing well, India has become No. 1 in cricket,

We have done a decent job in the Commonwealth Games, our exports are growing, and our

foreign exchanges are pretty comfortable, it is now that our youngsters must work hard, must

have high aspirations, must have high commitment and consolidate this progress, so that the

benefits of all the wonderful things can be enjoyed by every Indian. Therefore our youngsters

today have a tremendous responsibility to make this progress permanent.

The invitation for reader questions to Mr Narayana Murthy, is closed. The answers to the 10

best questions wil