Co-Founder, Infosys
Infosys honours India's finest minds
Infosys mentor NR Narayana Murthy speaks to NDTV about winners of the Infosys Prize 2010 which recognises outstanding contributions to scientific research.
About N. Murthy
N. Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, spoke at the Bharat Innovates 2026 event in Nice, France, in an exclusive interview with DD India. He credited Prime Minister Modi's Startup India initiative for fostering India's startup ecosystem over the past decade, calling the opportunity for young entrepreneurs to showcase their work in France a "great opportunity" and something to thank the government for. Murthy contrasted the current environment with the 1980s, noting that while earlier challenges included a lack of venture capital, poor communication, and travel restrictions, today's entrepreneurs face the more difficult task of competing globally with world-class innovations. Murthy offered advice to young innovators, emphasizing the importance of clearly expressing the differentiated business value of a product or service to customers in a simple sentence. He also stated that leaders must lead by example in sacrifice, austerity, hard work, smart work, innovation, and values.
Transcript (12 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
I
Interviewer0:05
Well, let's turn our attention now to the Infosys Prize of 2010, and we are now being joined by Mr. Narayana Murthy, who's joining us to talk about it, and also Nand with us right here, one of the award winners. Thank you, Nand, for being with us. Mr. Narayana Murthy, you first. Perhaps if you could just give us a quick description of what these awards are about and what specifically do you look for when you find people to award them?
N
N. Murthy0:33
Well, first of all, let me say, Vikram, it is an absolute pleasure to be talking to you. The Infosys Science Foundation was founded about a year and a half ago. The objective of the Infosys Science Foundation is to recognize men and women of science and engineering in five different areas: physical sciences, which includes physics and chemistry; mathematical sciences, which includes mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science; engineering sciences, which includes all branches of engineering; life sciences, medicine, and agriculture is the fourth category; and the final category is social sciences.
I
Interviewer1:16
Right. So just wanted to ask you about the quality of work that you've been seeing. Is there a lot of talent that you're finding out there? It's an indication of what the level of quality is.
N
N. Murthy1:31
Yeah, well, the primary criterion we have had is that the work that these people have done must be world-class. We said anybody that we select must be somebody who will get a tenure appointment in one of the finest US universities. So it has to be world-class.
I
Interviewer1:51
Nand, that presumably makes you happy, world-class. Now tell us about your work. You've done a lot of work in tribal welfare and Adivasi issues, but this is presumably for a body of work. Would you describe some of the rest of it for us?
N
Nand2:04
Well, I'm interested in issues of identity and inequality. One of the things that I've been writing about has been, for instance, the caste census and what the implications of that would be. I'd like to do further research on questions of mapping particular population groups, so that's one aspect. I'm interested in intellectual history. I did some work on Ambedkar's life and I really enjoy doing that. But I'm really honored to be given this prize, and I think it's great that social science is being recognized.
I
Interviewer2:36
Tell me honestly, does it infuriate you that every time you're talking about your work right now or tribal issues, Adivasi issues, somebody immediately asks you a question on Maoism?
N
Nand2:43
Well, I think that's part of what I've been doing, but it's not... I am fundamentally an academic, and even my work on the war in Chhattisgarh has come out of my academic engagement with the area. I've been doing research on Bastar for 20 years now, so it's not something disconnected from that.
I
Interviewer3:01
All right. Mr. Murthy, let me just come back to you for a second and ask you, now that we have you with us, about Infosys itself. I know you're not involved in the day-to-day functioning of it, but I'm sure you keep a very close eye. How do you think it's doing, especially in these days of potential currency war and appreciating rupee? Are you satisfied with the way life is panning out for the company?
N
N. Murthy3:25
Well, you know, as you know, we have done pretty well this year, both the top line and the bottom line. There is a lot of enthusiasm around me. Kris has done an exemplary job, so I'm quite happy with what has happened.
I
Interviewer3:45
Right. And of course, it seems that many of the talent whom you found, Mr. Murthy, seem to be almost running the country now in many ways. We see Nandan all over the place with the UID campaign, which presumably you would agree is a major step forward and a very important initiative.
N
N. Murthy4:02
Well, I'm so happy that Nandan has done a wonderful job. I'm really pleased. I think he has demonstrated how a good professional, when inducted into the government, can indeed add value. I hope Dr. Manmohan Singh will induct more high-quality professionals into his government, because we need such things.