Kuwait: Be Grateful to Countries You Stay In - Narayana Murthy
Report & Pics: Wilson Saldanha, Shirthady / Kuwait
Daijiworld Media Network - Kuwait
Kuwait, Nov 10: Kuwait Kannada Koota (KKK), a non-profit socio-cultural association, affiliated to Indian Embassy, arranged a lecture by well-known personality Padma Vibushan N R Narayana Murthy - founder and chairman emeritus, Infosys Ltd on Friday November 9 at Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) auditorium, Mishrif.
The topic of the lecture was ‘Entrepreneurship’. A session on ‘Corporate social responsibilities’ was scheduled to be conducted by author-philanthropist Padmashree Sudha Murthy, chairperson of Infosys Foundation, but she could not attend.
Satish C Mehta, Ambassador of India to Kuwait presided over the function. The programme began with a formal welcome by president of KKK Dr Surendra Nayak K, followed by introduction of the session by Satish C Mehta. Ahmed Fawzi Musaad Al Saleh, chairman, Kuwait Computer Services gave a humorous speech which was appreciated by everyone.
Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, better known as N R Narayana Murthy is an Indian businessman and co-founder of Infosys. There was pindrop silence in the audience as he addressed the gathering. The hall was overcrowded and audience were accommodated in another hall and video transmission was provided.
Murthy in his speech asked all the Indians to be grateful to the countries they stay in and to work for the development of those countries honestly. He urged them to have a powerful idea to become an entrepreneur. While talking on bureaucrats, he said that good bureaucrats at good places can make a great difference in development.
The audience gave him a rousing standing ovation at the end of the speech. He succeeded in touching the hearts of Indians in Kuwait. There was a question-answer session which had tremendous response. The well arranged programme came to an end with the vote of thanks by treasurer Dr Nagesh Babu S. The programme was ably compered by Vasuki.
Murthy’s life itself is an inspiration for anyone who is in the hunt of success. Murthy's first job was at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. After IIM Ahmedabad, he started a company named Softronics in 1976. When that company failed, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.
After settling down in Pune, Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was invested by his wife Sudha Murthy. Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002. At Infosys he articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. He held the executive position of chairman of the Board from 2002 to 2006, when he became the "non-executive" chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor. In August 2011, he retired completely from the company and taking the title Chairman Emeritus.
Murthy serves as an independent director on the corporate boards of HSBC and has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, ICICI and NDTV. He also serves as a member of the advisory boards and councils of several educational and philanthropic institutions, including Cornell University, INSEAD, Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Indo-British Partnership, a trustee of the Infosys Prize, and as a trustee of the Rhodes Trust that manages the Rhodes Scholarship. He is also the chairman of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India. He also serves on the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of British Telecommunications. In 2005 he co-chaired the World Economic Forum in Davos . He also received an honorary degree from Lancaster University. He brought Infosys from mere 250 dollars to 26 billion dollar Company. Today more than 153,000 employees are working for Infosys throughout the world.