Chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, NR Narayana Murthy, on Tuesday advised the Indian information technology (IT) sector to maintain a low profile and underplay its success like China, so it could pass unnoticed and avoid being targeted by the US government.
“Why is it that there is no big galata (ruckus) against China? China exports $1.1 trillion while ours is a piffling $50 billion. It (Indian IT-BPO exports) is nothing compared to China. The issue is they (Chinese exporters) are not visible,” said the co-founder of the second-largest IT services exporter in the country. Murthy pointed out that despite China being the main culprit for the rising unemployment in the US, “nobody is talking about it.”
“In fact, the damage that is being done to employment opportunity at lower levels in many of the Western economies is because of the extraordinary performance of Chinese export but nobody is talking about it… simply because they are not visible,” said Murthy, adding that Indian companies could be less visible by hiring more local employees in the foreign markets in which they have operations. “Hire Englishmen in England, Americans in the US and Brazilians in Brazil,” advised the chief mentor of Infosys.
Talking on a range of issues at a conference on the theme ‘India: Knowledge and professional services to the world — the next decade’, Murthy stressed the need to increase the number of English-medium schools in the state, opining that command over the language opened up a range of job opportunities. He urged the state government to introduce more English-medium schools.
Murthy said that a large number of young people travel abroad in search of opportunities. He said that there were unique advantages to living and working in one’s own land, and that talent should be retained, by providing all that goes into making people want to stay — reliable power supply and better transport facilities, for instance.
Asked about his priority if he were made the president of the country, Murthy retorted, “The president’s post is a ceremonial one. He is not expected to do much.” However, he went on to remember the great work that former president APJ Abdul Kalam accomplished. “Kalam did a great job, explaining to students what the future holds. He got young people excited about the prospects in India.”
