Compassionate Capitalism The Only Solution For Poor Country Like India: Narayana Murthy

N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder and retired chairman of Infosys, on Wednesday highlighted "compassionate capitalism" as the sole solution for India, advocating for it over the ideologies of communism and socialism.

Reflecting on his early leftist beliefs, Murthy attributed his ideological roots to his father, a high school teacher and an admirer of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. During a fireside chat at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, he said, "We were eight children, and he (Murthy’s father) was a great admirer of Nehru. Every day we were fed a very stapled diet of socialism."

Describing his transformative experience in France in the early 1970s, Murthy said, "My whole phase of socialism and leftism crumbled because I saw clean roads (there), I saw prosperity, I saw most advanced trains running on time."

Defining "compassionate capitalism," Murthy asserted, "Capitalism based on the twin pillars of free market and entrepreneurship is the only solution to any country to solve its problem of poverty. There is no other reason."

Murthy is the co-founder and retired chairman of the IT giant Infosys, retains a minority stake in the company. After a 30-year tenure at Infosys, Murthy stepped down as chairman in 2011, to return in 2013 to facilitate the transition of management to a professional CEO in 2014. Recently, Murthy sparked a nationwide discussion by proposing, during a podcast, that enhancing productivity in India requires young individuals to commit to a 70-hour workweek.

Addressing the role of entrepreneurs, Murthy said, "On the side of the entrepreneurs, they have to realise that they are the evangelists for capitalism... They have to bring fairness, transparency, and accountability to running their enterprises."

In advocating for social responsibility, Murthy stressed, "They (entrepreneurs) have to ensure that when they take their decisions, they have to look at whether the poorest or the lowest-level employee in the company is made better by the decisions they take."

Rejecting alternatives, Murthy firmly said, "Compassionate capitalism is the only solution for a poor country like India to become a prosperous country. Not socialism, not communism, none of those."