BENGALURU: Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy on Wednesday suggested that nothing should be given for free. There should be citizens’ contribution also towards making our society a better one.
“While I’m not against free services, I think we should expect something in return from those people who receive free subsidies to take a slightly bigger responsibility to make their own future generation better,” he said during a fireside chat with Zerodha’s co-founder Nikhil Kamath at Bengaluru Tech Summit here.
Compassionate capitalism is the only solution for a poor country like India to become prosperous, not socialism or communism, he said. To make Bengaluru more attractive, Murthy suggested the need to open more English schools and improve the city’s infrastructure with a sense of alacrity.
Fix Bengaluru infrastructure with alacrity, says NRN
Murthy said, “The first task of a good public governance system for Bengaluru to become even more stronger is we have to provide total freedom to start English medium schools whether we like it or not. I have met a lot of very important people in different areas, they all have sent their children to English medium schools. I have not come across anybody who is very important in any area, who sends his children to Kannada medium schools.” “I am a Kannadiga, I speak Kannada and I enjoy reading SL Bhyrappa, Shivaram Karanth, my wife and that is not the issue, the reality is you asked a question what do we need to do so that Bengaluru is even more successful?,” he told Kamath at the summit.
He said there is a need to improve the city’s infrastructure with a sense of alacrity. Extending Metro services to Electronics City and other parts of Bengaluru where there are many companies must be done on priority and people in infrastructure industries must work three shifts, he added. “Elsewhere in nations that have high aspirations, I have seen people work at least two shifts,” he said. He said the city contributes about 35-37% of the total software exports from India and that is about $75 billion from Bengaluru alone.