Indian interviewers are increasingly getting soft. Gone is the fire in the belly; the drive to ask tough, uncomfortable questions even at the cost of making an enemy. Instead, we are slipping quickly into a quicksand of PR-driven, stage-managed pap, no different from a paid-for commercial or an advertisement.
To fill the breach, churumuri is pleased to introduce “Just One Question“, an irregular feature where we invite you to fire away at chosen targets. For starters, what is the one question you are dying to ask Infosys founder, N R Narayana Murthy? Keep your questions short, civil, and to-the-point.
Mr Narayana Murthy, do you still run your household on Rs 10,000 a month (or was it Rs 12,000) as you famously claimed a couple of years ago?
When you look at your own interviews, don’t you feel you have become a bloody bore, mouthing middle-class nonsense?
Mr. Murthy,
In a country, let’s face it, that’s predominantly shockingly poor and illiterate, where the proverbial gap between the haves and the havenots is wider than the Grand Canyon in the United States of America, a country you lose no opportunity to fawn over and eulogise, is IT the ultimate panacea or is it just another business among other businesses, liquor included, to make massive money, using, in this case, the comparitively better hold over the English language coupled with math skills that the average ‘educated’ Indian possesses?
If you had to start all over again, and start as humbly as all of you did, do you think you could set up up another company as big and as successful as Infosys?
Sri. Murthy, how do you deal with skeptics who try to discourage you?
Another question: How soon do you think Indian IT companies will be leaders in product innovation?
Why are you not into more e-governance areas? or for that matter, developing software solutions for India?
Dear Mr. Murthy,
How about starting Infosys in backward areas of Karnataka?
Mr.Murthy, why can’t you retain all the thousands of young college graduates who join in droves each year and leave the same way for other companies at the end of one year? (Please don’t tell me they have no commitment or work ethic)
Is Infosys as transparent a company as it claims? Because I sense a feeling of fear among some of the employees when they talk about the company.
Do you believe you have social responsibility? If so, where is the evidence of that?
I know for sure there have been times when Infosys donated over-used computers to village schools that had no electricity! But what did the Press care? Having gorged on the goodies you provided them at the meet their headlines screamed of your magnanimity.
I would ask.
narayanamurthy gaLe …
How many locals have been given jobs in the unskilled area ( like canteen,security,gardner,house keeper etc ) especially for those people on whose lands your foundation lies?
If you so love India, why are your children studying abroad? After all, it was the same India that produced your genius.
are u an atheist?
Subsidised education has made all of us what we are today, including yourself. But you have been advocating removal of subsidy at the primary level. Just for information, a newspaper report, after your statement, mentioned that an ordinary BA would cost about Rs.30,000. What made you advocate this? Do you think people would be able to afford decent education by paying so much?
Is it jealosy, iconoclasm or caste prejudice that has so many people gunning for you?
Dear Mr. Murthy,
On the one hand you advocate a smaller role for the government and on the other hand you want the government to acquire 100s of acres of land for your company. Why not negotiate with the land owners directly leaving the government out?
You are also an advocate of Angreji Medium Education. Why are you not concerned with the quality of education regardless of medium of instruction? Higher education quality benefits the entire nation. Knowledge of Angreji with some technical skills mostly benefits your industry. Do you even realize that even the majority of private Angreji schools are without proper facilities or qualified teachers.
The days when Infosys was a small company you always spoke moving up the value chain and becoming a product company. Now, after some twenty years you don’t have anything more than a banking software to show for it. Why should only the SAPs, Oracles and the Microsofts of the world make product and the Infys of the world services?
Mr Narayana murthy gale
On one hand you talk of infrastructure problems in Bangalore especially on Hosur Road, don’t you think you are only adding to the problem by adding new employees in thousands every year. Why not plan and start Infosys campuses in north Karnataka. You already have the credit of being a trendsetter in IT in Bangalore?
Murthy Sir,
Please do let me if your company has developed one single software package for the advancement of our own country, as you recruit the cream of creams of this country to help the general public of america and suffocate all of us in Bangalore?
# Sri B Says:
March 9th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Hi,
I just want to ask G N Mohan only one question.
if he really committed to his communist ideology why can’t he resign for his post as the news coordinator of Etv News Kannada as the channel sued 10s of Kannada journalists in the name of bonds.
why he is supporting management in this issue?
its better to add pre fix Usaravalli along with G N
Hi Mr. NRN,
If INFOSYS can donate Rs.80 crores, which is 50% contribution of Karnataka(Total cost 240 Crores-Centre’s contribution Rs. 80 crores) towards Electrification and doubling of Mysore- Bangalore Railway line, the Line could become a Realty by 2008-2009.This would be one of the finest contribution from Infosys towards Public-Private Participation.Both Chidambaram and Lalu have said they will give speedy clearance for such projects .With travel time of 90-100 minutes, it will decongest Bangalore, Buildup Mysore, save enormously on diesel cost ( ITrain = 25 KSRTC BusLoad),reduce traffic on Road which means less pollution and Public will have faster, cheaper mode of transport all through the day.It will also help infoscians for faster travel between the two cities!Will you do it sir?
ERR
A brilliant suggestion!
NRN bari bayalli manthra heltha irtharey astey!
Aadhre swalpa ugulu jasthi
80 crores beda bidi, Mysore nalli free citybus odisi women, children, and old people…yesto sahaya aguthhey!
More money brings more sarcastic glances. More powerful you become, more and more people in this World start hating you. Your success absolutely pricks the ‘non-IT’ ego and breeds jealousy.
Sir, Do you care ?
Ree Decemberstud
Murthy yenu devalokadindha ilidhu bandhilla!
Please stop brown nosing him, I say!
The man should be held aacountable for social responsibilities too!
Look at Bill Gates? See how he shares his wealth for the greater good!
Now come back and look at Murthy! WHat do you see?
LOL DB….kuMbaLakaayi kaLLa aMdre….;)
On that note, am I not entitled to my opinions ?
LMAO DEC STUD
Definitely! Just go back and read your own comments. Now do you feel that pumpkin?
why only infy ERR?
ask wipro and the rest of IT gang, and old timers like reliance, tata, volvo, mallya, khoday (200 acres kabja maaDidha mahashaya), gokaldas, toyota, airtel mittal, realestate moguls, media moguls, raj kumar family and rest of filmdom and other sundry business people, also no?
they all make so much money from KA market, can’t they do something for us? Mebbe even ask Kheny. ;)
hey wait a minute, mebbe each house hold in B-M region can give kailaadhasThu ,yogyatheg anusaara- 100, 1000, 5000,10K,1lakh heege.
at least a few crores can be raised like this.
shall i put you down for 5000rs, sir? how about DB 200$ ok na?
nand ond 5000 barkoLLi, DS ond 5000 koDthaare.
you really think it is stalled because of money? cost of two grade separators in blore should cover that.
http://www.infosys.com/infosys_foundation/index.htm
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/11/10/stories/2004111016320500.htm
http://www.akshayapatra.org/index.asp
again i have nothing to do with Infy.
TS
Point taken! The man who does most of the whinging for IT community is Murthy. May be if he spends a few thousand dollars in Mysore area, may be we will take him seriously. It cannot all be one-way street right?
Premji and the rest are outsiders, At least Murthy is a local guy. In the case of Kheny the guy is actually building a super highway, although he wants to make money by way of real-estate to recoup his money. IMHO that is a very honest endeavor.
If I even had a fraction of money, Muthy has, I would be running a free city buys service in Mysore for women and old folk.
‘city bus’ service.
maaDli biDi DB, karnatakada bagge kaaLji, aashaya irOdhindle comment maaDthaare (even if it is due to personal bottomline). in anycase Infy as a co is not talking or doing anything that we as individuals have not done talking or acting on, including, relocating to ensure better personal finances, even when KA has subsidized our formative education and experiences, not to mention playing the govt policies to our advantage – how many houses in MYS have legitimate water connection – how many have not violated city’s by laws?
in anycase, namman naave criticize maaDoke vond solpa balls, confidence beku. this has been the greatest display of confidence in KA that I ,for one , have ever seen. To give you an analogy, only the MIT at MA has the confidence to talk about unpreparedness of US undergrads at an international conference. GA tech, UMich, Harvard, Yale yella puklu. yeshte aadru, there are almost no equivalents to MGP, ACICM, koramangala initiative, malleshwaram swaabhimaana, even HDMC type of people or organizations to any other city in the desha.
atleast now we are all talking about productive stuff like infra, development, urban-rural divide etc., i wonder what it was that was printed on the main pages in the years that we spent reading the sports columns. i mean, KP, Sunaad et al, should tell us if has there has been any other time where so much of developmental and progressive issues have been addressed.
as far as i see the old world was dominated by brahminical debates on eclectism and percepts of now universally discarded theories – to some of which even now, a few hang on.
aside,
i just wish KP, Sunaad et al respond to the comments here. that would make churmuri truely egalitarian mysore-esque and more relavant. otherwise, here we are a bunch of mysoreans talking to the newspaper that holds the churumuri. for the famous mysoor’s kattes sake jump in i say. wash in with us unwashed o’ holy ones. yaakee maDivanthige?
TS
Thank you for the links. IMHO Infy is doing some social service but not much given its stature and money power.
If you ask Deve Gowda, he would have said, “IMHO as a Humble Farmer and Hardanahalli-born Hydha from Holenarasipur Taluk belonging to Hassan District, no. Murthy has not done any thing!…” :)
Saar, self-criticism the size of ‘ragi’ balls yirbeku antheeralla? I found it quite difficult to follow your thoughts on the subject. Neevu MIT Harvard ithyaadi U’s gella hogi thumba jasthi vishaya helibittree! Nandu simple mind, saar.
Sunaad and KP yee platform kottidhharalla? What else you and I need? Just rant away!
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Yella Mathadar(s) madar(s) obbrooo yilla !
DG
Kailaggaddhu, bayalli mathadi thorisona!
ley murthy,
esht jana kannadigaru(raitaru in particular) tale mEl kay eLd duD maaDidya? baay bitre corporate ethics gikthiksu antyalla, osi nim company HR deptalli tumbkoMDirO kongaru, mallugaLa ethics bagge swalpa maataaDtiya?
Sisya,
Ana wasi KRV kadey ee suddhi mutsu siva!
Namma raitharannu vakkalebbisi IT madidrey, mundehy aago anahuthakke Murthy matthu ithararey karana!
Dear Mr. Murthy,
I have crawled the web audaciously, but cudnt find this.
How can I fix an appointment with you ?
Thanks
Mr.murthy,
People from non-it field, especially Kannadigas are fed up with this IT industry. What has it given to them.
Earlier it used to take them one and half hr max to travel from hosur road to Vijaynagar. Now it takes 3 hrs. Their salaries havn’t gone up. They also equally contribute to the nation and the society by their work. Even after putting 15-20 years of service in small and Medium manufacturing industries, there are lakhs of ppl in Blore who can’t even dream of buying a small site even 20 kms away from heart of the city. Whereas, ur so called techies with just 2-3 years buy flats in the middle of the city! And to make matter worse, u have given free hand to ur non-kannadiga managers to recruit any idiot from other states. This merit and all is big bunkum. We all know how many tamils and others r working in ur company with fake experience and credentials. And IT alone cannot take the nation forward. U cannot eat IT. U need rice,dal U need roads, clothes ,scavengers, plumbers , masons , manual labourers etc.
Very nicely put, Thinker! I hope Murthy is reading these posts and I hope he will benefit from it.
Well said thinker .
I am wondering how honest you are. I know you have done a good job in marketing yourself and Infosys when it comes to honesty, integrity etc. I have heard from your x-employees that Infosys does practice unethical things such as over billing the clients, hyping/lying about your capabilities to get a sales deal etc. I guess, in your books, honesty and integrity is a relative term.
Why infosys is not observing the freshers putting fake experience on the resume and joining the infosys,mysore.
Please take necessary action.
Again hi here,
I love infosys.Because it given job to many employees.Depending on the talent.
I heard one person who added fake experienc in resume and trying to join infosys mysore in april month
Please look in to it
Mr Murthy, U speak a lot abt merit and also strictly oppose the quota system , Firstly, Do u care how many people from Tamil land are getting recruited as a direct result of ur esteemed merotorious Tamil Managers??? Dont u think that colleges in the blore district alone is sufficient to cater to freshers?? Have u taken enough steps to curb this filthy linguistic favoritism???? ( Oh of which is not Kannadiga!!!). Can u do something at all to the people indigineous to blore and karnataka at large and gain the confidence of the people than recriuting such horrendously fake-full degree and experience holders from accross the state???
You oppose quota system….I aint a quota backer but i m miffed by ur answer by constantly telling merit alone should be criteria..Can u think beyond IT and math??? India is a nation of toooo many religions and oh god!@!! castes. Many are yet to unfetter the caste struggles to lead a meaningful life… CAN U PLEASE THINK OUT OF THE BOX AND COME WITH DIFF ANSWERS THAN BORING US TO THE CHORUS>
Mr. Murthy,
Is Narayan Murty = Infosys or is Infosys = Narayan murthy?
muurthigale…………naanu ondu kerala comapanialli work maadtha iddini, based in trivandrum. You know how they encourage local talent who can speak loacl language………..i think infosys nevere did this sort of encouraging kannadigaas…………with all due respect i would like to tell you one thing. If you really want to put karnataka, in particular bangalore on world map…. do some thing to local engineering lads first……first let we become prosper and them others……..i never seen any kannadiga engineer praising infosys till now………….
Mr Narayan Murthy Can i know your motive behind saying that foreign employees would be embarrassed if we sing national anthem in chorus?
We are deeply pained by your comments
Mr. Murthy, I want to ask you one question. I know that you donate lots of money to many foreign universities. Have you ever donated anything to any Indian university? havent you found any engineering college worth donating and developing? 98% of employees working with you come from Indian universities. So why dont you donate or adopt Indian universities/colleges and improve their standards? why are you behind so called cornells of the world.
Mr. Murthy which place do u like Bengaluru or Chennai
If it is Bengaluru? Why are building ur biggest campus in chennai
If it is Chennai? Why the h**l u stay in bengaluru
India is a confused country. Bill O’Reilly advised me not to have anything to do with Narayan Murthy. BTW, I ate Papri chat and was very good.
I will become a US citizen tomorrow.
you stupids, just think one matter narayan muthy is a one indian who is the image of india for the entire world you know because of ur bloody thoughts you r not at the poistion of murthy and you will never be.
In all the posts above every body is interested in projecting only things Mr NRM has not done, but now let there be postings about all that he has done to the people of India, sorry Bengaluru _ Karnataka!
WhyTF did you not Vote in recent elections?
DO you still have Moral right to complain on Government inability to tackle Bangaluru Infrastructure issues ?
Why should one expect NRM to do any thing to the people . We all pay TAX through our nose and so does NRM. Let the Government do this–free bus service, free education etc. Let NRM do what he feels is good outside Infosys. It is his hard earned money and he has a choice to spend it as he feels fit.
Once some body introduce free bus service for children and the aged, we have to have free ride for their companion also. So it will grow like somebody’s Langoti!
When there is an organisation with 20 people working, there are another 20 people who are benefited by this out side the organisation. When you have an organisation where over 50000 people are working then there will be over 10lakh people benefited by this outside. Why not we work on this?
Any thing free has no Value or Respect.
I m an ex – Infosian. I always wanted to ask Mr . Narayan Murthy,and Mrs.Sudha Murthy, “Being a Kannadiga, what are the steps you would liek to take to improve your hometown, Hubli, Mysore and Bangalore and help your very own Kannada people and promote the Kannada Culture in India and also abrod?”
Thanks,
Shubha
Mr Narayan Murthy is a pure bussinessman. He is vying to become the president of India and projecting himself as some sort of IT messihah. Infosys is a cheap outsourcing company who doesn’t have any intellectual capacity or property of their own. They are totally dependant upon United States to give them some service related work. People like Narayan Murthy doesn’t deserve the respect as they something while their actions are something else. I hope companies like Infosys should be sold in scrap and people like Narayan Murthy should be thrown out of India.