Table of Contents
EARLY LIFE
- Narayana Murthy was born on 20 August 1946 in Shidlaghatta, Chikkaballapura district Karnataka.
- After completing his school education, he went to the National Institute of Engineering and graduated in 1967 with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
- In 1969 he received his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.
GENIUS
- From his childhood days, Narayana Murthy was academically brilliant. He was passionate about Mathematics and Physics and always had the thirst and the desire to gain more knowledge in these fields.
- Murthy first served as Research Associate under a faculty at IIM Ahmedabad and then later served as chief systems programmer.
- There he worked on India’s first time-sharing computer system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for Electronics Corporation of India Limited.
INFOSYS
- He started a company named Softronics. When that company failed after about a year and a half, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.
- Murthy and six software professionals founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was provided by his wife Sudha Murthy.
- Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years from 1981 to 2002 and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
INFOSYS
- He was chairman of the board from 2002 to 2006, after which he became Chairman of the board and Chief Mentor.In August 2011, he retired from the company, taking the title chairman Emeritus.
- Murthy serves as an independent director on the corporate board of HSBC and has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, ICICI and NDTV.
INFOSYS
- On June 1, 2013, Narayana Murthy was called out of retirement to lead the company once again. Narayana Murthy, who will turn 67 this year, has taken up the challenge to bring the company back on its feet.
- He has taken up the positions of an Additional Director and the Executive Chairman of the Board with the company. And he is working closely with the top management to come up with incentives such as giving higher salaries to top performers to improve the performance of the company.
Honors
- From the beginning, the team kept the interests of the company ahead of their own interest. And each of the team members brought complementary strengths to the company.
- Today, Narayana Murthy is listed as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, alongside Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. In 2000, he was awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India for his significant contribution to the country’s IT sector and economy. In 2008, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award.