I write this at my own risk. I know I invite the ire of Indian IT professionals by talking this way about their patron saint.
Kannadiga software pros, their parents, and other Infosys worshippers will call me an... Read The Article
Well I am no great fan of Mr.Murthy neither am I inclined to criticise him for the non-existant anthem controversy.Lets face it What is Mr.Murthy,just another successful entrepreneur.Lets for god's sake stop talking abt him as a beacon of hope or as he himsef calls "the humanist capitalist"bcos he is neither.Here is an organisation which gets thousands of acres of land at subsidised prices from our brainless govt,gets tax holidays and when there is a small hike in the corporate tax or appreciation of the ruppee go all out for its withdrawl.They behave as though they are doing a national service by running a company and earning huge profits.Lets accept it what are our "bright young men and women " doing in these IT giants.They are programming a job for a client in the language he prefers.So where is the innovation aspect that drives the economy on a long run ala IBM,Microsoft?The day the need for human programers ceases these robotised generations of ours will again be found on the streets.It is the small orgn which really are in the forefront of innovations and inventions rather than these corporate bigwigs and they barely get a mention(read sling box....).Instead our Murthy is busy wanting the govt to construct an elevated highway to the Electronic city while barely 50km from bangalore the villages do not have drinking water and have to walk 2kms to get a bus.Neither for once does Mr.murthy talk abt pitching in to improve the infrastructural needs of B'lore leave alone the rural areas.For his benevelonce Infosys is demanding 800 and odd acres of land in bangalore for its new centre.We all thought Infy was a software giant and we r clueless of use of such a huge amount of land.Well the displaced farmers after loosing there lands to less than market value are provided the jobs of sweepers and cleaners in this orgn.The employees themselves are no more than dignified slaves with high rate of attrition.business leaders would do well to mind their own "businesses".
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 12:16 )
I pity on your ignorance Prashanth, atleast know the facts before making statements. There is a lot of innovation taking place inside of Infosys, forget comparing it with IBM, Microsoft. Can you compare India with US? IBM has been in the market for long and is way way better than any other services company. Infosys on the other hand has shown its significance from the late 90's early 2000 century. You want to know about innovation, http://www.infosys.com/finacle/finacle_solutions.asp. It is a product developed by Infosys for banking solutions and is developing good market. Big banks have started using the product for their success. As far as NRN is concerned, he has helped India by employing 100,000 employees directly. It does not matter if they are doing low end work or high end work, atleast they are getting enough money to have a decent living. He gave solutions to develop Bangalore (bangaluru) city, its airport, but the govt. had different ideas. At end I would say, TCS, Infosys and Wipro alongwith other IT services providing companies have done immense for the growth of the country, that we are in a stage to compete with the best in the world. NRN is a role model and a true patriot, just by not not reciting the national anthem, doesnot make anyone a less of an Indian. I can say that 50 pc of the readers will not be able to recite our national anthem correctly.
( Posted by Prateet on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:27 )
No dobut that any body differs from the perpective of Mr.NRN as a IT personality with all his achievements but he has proven that he is still an amature in Indian Politics and in handling the media with back to back rows in two days. Also lets not forget as you mentioned US and INDIA will never be the same as all these IT giants have opened the gates with the brand name " LOW COST LABOUR " and India will have to struggle a lot to erase that Identity over the next few decades.
( Posted by yuvaraj on Saturday , April 14, 2007 at 01:14 )
Harshad
DP, for a change you have posted a good article, may be your first one. :-) Congrats for that. Although, your views about Mr Murthy on national anthem make some sense, but I think it is not correct to inflate the entire issue and give it emotional colors. Also, you have been, as always, very biased in your opinions. I strongly suggest that an columnist of your stature should consider to look at an issue through multiple angles. I say this for I believe that, Mr Murthy's views on caste discrimination are ABOLUTELY correct. We need to catch up with the developed economies and caste discrimination would'nt take us anywhere.
Net net, let us hope that we get another president after Mr. Kalam who we can truly be proud about.
I contrast to your views, I support Mr Murthy and would definitely like to see him as the next President.
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 12:15 )
The columnist has tried to exploit the opportunity by first highlighting the national anthem issue and then cleverly (really?) adding other issues like the reservations and english language etc.
It is very naive of Narayana Murthy to not sing the anthem in the presence of foreigners. Tell me how many will stand up if they hear the anthem? what reason will they tell for not standing up?
whether you approve his views or not, he has atleast expressed them unambiguously. the anthem issue makes him looks foolish (the law will take its own course if it is an offense).
but this issue is not going to turn him into an un-patriotic, money-minded, (and other attributes that u tried to attach) person overnight.
We dont object when these MNCs and even the Indian companies make people work Independence and Republic Days just because they are normal days for them. Their attitude is also similar to this. They dont want to 'embarrass' the foreigners by not working! It is implicit whereas Narayana Murthy has expressed it. That is the only difference.
Meanwhile people like the columnist, politicials especially in Karnataka see this as a golden opportunity to spew as much venom as possible. Looks like they have been waiting for such an opportunity.
( Posted by Ravi on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:32 )
Ravi
NRN has strong and logical opinions on all matters of concern in India, be it governance, infrastructure or reservations. You need not always agree with his opinion, but they are logical, and well articulated. He has made an enormous success of his company, in fact, Infosys is a brand icon for India's success in IT so far. What has he done for bangalore and Karnataka? His company has provided direct employment for 18000 engineers in Karnataka, who pay taxes, buy cars and other goods and spend money in Bangalore. In turn this provides employment to an even larger population in Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore. Are we seriously expecting Infosys to fix the roads and water and electricity problems of Karnataka? This is the job of the super patriotic ministers and MLAs of Karnataka, who are up in arms against NRN. If they did their job at 10% the level NRN has achieved, we may have no problems in Karnataka. The statement that NRN made re the National Anthem looks like it was made without much thought. We can criticise it, but calling NRN unpatriotic and asking for his arrest is stupid. It shows us Indians for what we are, underachievers ourselves individually and as a nation, and jealous of successful people anywhere. It looks unlikely that NRN will be the next president. He must be reading all the venom that has been spewed against him, and even if he had any inclination to serve this country, he would have rapidly come to his senses. We deserve only Gandhi family bootlickers as our presidents and prime ministers
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 11:28 )
Well Said... that was nice ... let the people first understand the reality... These dumb Politicians will never do anything good...
( Posted by N on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:21 )
Ravi kudos to you.....gud logical article i must say....we still hv people who can think n not jus ruthlessly speak abt anyone....crticizing is the easiest o all i believe....
( Posted by Sakshi on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:49 )
Tamil
It's really a great article. I appreciate it as a Tamilian and an Indian. We are not singing our National anthem in US or UK and embrassing foreigners. It was an event in Bangalore and we had to sing our own National anthem.. If an event happens in any country, that country national anthem can be played.
See.. First of all, we should not sacrifice our own identity in the name of embrassing foreigners. As you have stated in the article, NRN will sacrifice it.
Of course, he is actively opposing Reservation. He is handling all the issues as business man. He should not be allowed to be a President of India. He is definitely not fit for it.
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 11:06 )
Ur true identity of being Indian reflects in the opening statement of your comment. I would like to know from you how well "Hindi" is embraced in ur state. I hope the stats would reflect the true picture.
( Posted by Nalin on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:10 )
Sabby
Surely NRN is not suitable to become the next president after Dr Kalam. (Hope people note my respect for this man when I call him “NRN” and the current president “Dr Kalam”).
NRN has been immensely lucky to be in the right place at the right time coupled with a lot of hugely talented and extremely hard working team behind him.
This man has been very shrewd and media savvy. Ques : How many knows today the other Directors of Infosys or the entire team that built it? Ans : Only a handful.
No one can become 1st citizen of this great country just because a few without work boot licking employees (may I dare say perennially-on-the-bench) propose your name. You need to do something for the country. Least is to show respect to her National Symbols.
Someone asked what other politicians have done for their constituents? Ans.: I request them to visit Malda(WB) - Gani Khan Chowdhury turned the city on it’s head, Baramati(part of Pune) – Sharad Pawar is God here, do I need to say more about Pune? Saifai(UP) – Mulayam has made this a world class city.
Few Infosys guys who don’t know a bit of India are all praises for NRN just because they get salary from him without any work. Probably they are not aware that he charges his clients on USD / Hr basis and doles out pittance to these freshers in return.
A guy asked if not NRN then who? My suggestion : Dr Karan Singh. Reasons : 1) An indisputable scholar, period. 2) A Congressman but hugely knowledgeable on Hinduism (may get support from both Congress and Saffron brigade). 3) True blue lineage. 4) Impeccable past record. Doesn’t do or say silly nonsense like NRN and very important trait for 1st citizen. 5) Next turn is of a North Indian and do I dare say of an upper caste Hindu now after previous Presidents being a Dalit and a Muslim.Very Important factor in the current Caste ridden politics.
Trust this now puts all controversy to rest.
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 11:00 )
Luck is the part and parcel of each success story. I would like to remind u that Infosys provides ESOPS to its employees which has made quite a few billionaires. They also have programmes which encourages Enterpreauners. Yes the person is successful but the orgn has spread the success to all the shareholders(kindly speak with any Infy shareholder). i am quite curious to know how the Govt. orgnstn have utilised their allocated money. How many MLA's and MPs visit their constituencies and have developed their constituency. Kindly realate the salary received per MP to the development of the constituency. The point is 20yrs of hard work and dedication has put the team where they r now. Oh yes i also want to highlight ur biased thinking, by highlighting ur point that the next prez shuld be N.Indian. Pls get above trivial level
( Posted by Nalin on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 15:37 )
Though the views of DP Satish seem biased I do agree that NRN should not be the next President. And yes Sabby, I agree with you tht Dr. Karan Singh should be the next President. (For once someone has posted a sensible comment without being too biased about the issue)
( Posted by Bibechana on Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 13:45 )
Ramesh
This debate over the next president is a waste of time when the public have no say in the matter. Ultimately it boils down to the political party(s) which has the maximum votes in the electoral college. They declide who it will be to mitigate the political compulsion at that time e.g. Zail Singh. This time it could be Karan Singh. Though eminent there is the Kashmir Perspective to that.
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 10:43 )
Ashish
I feel except for the last incident the national anthem one, he is right in every other place. If u feel his views about english is wrong then y dont u urself write in some hindi newspaper,he is right about the school conditions also, he is making a point to improve the schools and if u feel they are the best places to study please please send ur kids to those schools. Mr if u have so many problems with him then why are u always concerned about infosys profits and indian IT sucess.
I dont understand what are u trying to convey, as it happens in middle schools where one has to speak for the topic and the other has to be against the topic,i feel u are doing the same without any logical reasoning and justifying your points.
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 10:41 )
Mahesh
Anthum doesn't say what you are and just by wearing khadi you will not be a Leader. Yoy are levaing in 15th century and you better join Congress or RJD. where were you when Vande mataram was thrown out by our congress leader....
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 10:40 )
Ganesh Ratnam
Its because of people like Murthy that India is longer considered a cow shed in the general world view. But morons that we are, we will obviously train our guns on anyone who is honest, disiplined, and calls a spade a spade. Meaniwhile, gangsters masquearading as politicans will continue to loot the country. " Patriotic" MLA's ( !!) will make a hue and cry on the national anthem, and none of us will form a undergound outfit and find ways of exterminating them from the face of this earth. We will continue to live our pathetic existences, accept anything, keep our opinions and views to coffee table discussions with colleagues, and be bygones be bygones. Educated morons that we are !
( Posted: Thursday , April 12, 2007 at 10:39 )
Rajanikanth Venkatesh Murthy
Your Comments are Realistic ! .. NRN as a President Makes No Sense ! ..
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