As the nation anticipates the arrival of a new government, IT industry luminaries N R Narayana Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan called on the power that be to adopt a version of economic system which is a departure from communism and capitalism.
The two emphasised on the urgency of accelerating wealth creation for the country and proposed a compassionate capitalist ethos as "neither socialist nor communist systems led to a satisfactory outcome in the past," in an interview to Economic Times.
Murthy. the Infosys founder, said it was important to provide ample opportunities for 99 per cent of "honest" entrepreneurs to grow quickly and generate numerous jobs. He also suggested imposing severe penalties on those who break the rules.
Murthy and Gopalakrishnan advocated for more funding for research and higher education institutions from both the private and public sectors and highlighted the necessity to modernise outdated practices.
Gopalakrishnan said, "We also need to increase our funding for research, both from private and public....more is needed. Look at US universities -- MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc -- they get endowments worth billions of dollars, so I hope that our alumni will contribute more to our institutions."
"Today our institutions are primarily dependent on government funding....I want to see more industry participation also," he said.
Murthy said even now, entrepreneurs face restrictions in donating shares to academic or research institutions.
"If a young entrepreneur gives some shares, we don't have to assume that all of them will fail. So once the government starts looking at these innovative ideas that prevail in the industry, things will happen," he said.
"Once the company achieves certain growth they (institutions which were given shares) will get a dividend, which will itself be very significant and they will keep multiplying value. So, even educational institutions will have to look at what our future will be 20 or 50 years from now," he added.
Gopalakrishnan advised premier institutes to look at things like "holding equity....because equity if you hold it will multiply over time significantly."
N R Narayana Murthy. Image Source: Wikipedia
Commentaires