The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Honour for one of India’s most admired CEOs

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Honour for one of India’s most admired CEOs

Anand Parthasarathy

Government confers Padma Vibhushan on Narayana Murthy

N.R. Narayana Murthy

BANGALORE: The Indian information technology industry’s most iconic leader, N.R. Narayana Murthy, has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan, his second Padma award. He received the Padma Shri in 2000.

The man who co-founded Infosys in 1981 with six fellow software professionals is widely credited with stamping the company with his own mixture of professional excellence and ethical business practices.

Like the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam with whom he is often compared, Mr. Murthy is a product of wholly home-grown education: a BE from Mysore University and an M. Tech from IIT Kanpur.

Again, like Dr. Kalam, Mr. Murthy speaks plain common sense unencumbered by hype, and while he not very often to be seen in Bangalore’s conference and seminar circuits, his increasingly rarer appearances are marked by sober assessments of India’s so-called IT miracle — and firm but gentle warnings that the competition is hotting up. “Call centres will become obsolete once voice recognition techniques are perfected,” he told this correspondent on the sidelines of a NASSCOM summit in Mumbai a few years ago — it was a prediction that is proving prescient now —and forcing many call centres in India to swiftly reinvent themselves very soon — or perish.

Infosys’s location in Electronics City has challenged the company and all other occupants and Mr. Murthy has never minced words when it came to commenting on the city’s infrastructure. Even while proposing bold plans such as the elevated road to the Electronics City, he attracted uninformed criticism on occasions. He resigned as Chairman of the Bangalore International Airport Limited in 2005 after his contribution was questioned by the political class and more recently, saw an innocuous remark about the national anthem blown into a mini controversy — till the courts restored a sense of proportion.

Having seen Infosys grow to become a respected name and one of the most wanted brands in the global IT services sector, Mr. Murthy handed over the reins as Chief Executive to co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002, and in 2006, at the age of 60, gave up his remaining executive responsibilities to become a non-executive Chairman and Chief Mentor.

Infosys remains a must-see location not just for visiting heads of state but lay professionals from the West who these days work for doctoral degrees analysing the “Infosys Way” of doing business. While TCS and Wipro are at least two other brands who have earned the respect of the global technology business, Infosys remains in some ways unique — a bellwether of the industry and a model that is often imitated.

He has been among the most admired CEOs and global technology leaders in polls conducted by Time Magazine, The Economist, Ernst & Young, BusinessWeek and others.

With his wife, Sudha Murthy, he has practised what he has often preached: “The power of money is the power to give it away,” supporting a number of charities and non-governmental development initiatives.

“Ships are safe in harbour,” Mr Murthy said once, “But they are not meant to be there.”

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