N. R. Narayana Murthy

We all, as engineers, doctors, have a big responsibility to bring smiles on the faces of suffering humanity.

Mahatma Gandhi was someone who demonstrated the tremendous power of leadership by example.

Science is about unravelling nature.

I want Infosys to be a company which is globally respected and in where people belonging to different nationalities, races and religious beliefs will work with intense competition but utmost courtesy, dignity and co-operation in adding greater value to our stakeholders day after day.

Infosys is an absolute meritocracy. Even in a meritocracy, other things being equal, you have to give opportunity to the more experienced candidate.

Often times I have been asked about the attributes for success, and I have said that you need two attributes for succeeding as an entrepreneur: one, courage, second, luck.

It's very important to learn quick lessons from your failures, very important to recognize symptoms of failure pretty early, and it is very, very important to not to be attached too much to the idea - you have to know when to give up an idea.

Even if a company is taken private, at some stage people want to make it public.

It's well proved economics that if a country which is rich and a country that is poor come together in global trade, sooner or later the standard of living of the poor country will go up towards that of the rich country.

Every company has to identify what I call its strategic resources, and make sure that it grabs as much of its strategic resources as possible.

I think every country has to recognize its competitive advantage and liberate its strengths to be a partner in global trade, and that's the only way you can survive and succeed.

I think India has several advantages in the knowledge sector, in the software sector.

I think, at the end of the day, you have to reduce friction to businesses, ideally to zero, so that more and more entrepreneurs can create more and more jobs with higher and higher disposable income.

I think, my own personal view is there should be higher and higher levels of autonomy; government should not interfere in setting up colleges, in running colleges. The market, the society will decide which is a good university, which is not a good university, rather than government mandating.

Engineering or technology is all about using the power of science to make life better for people, to reduce cost, to improve comfort, to improve productivity, etc.

I believe all universities should at least offer courses in politics and policy implementation.

To me, patriotism is about working ethically and wholeheartedly in our chosen field.

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people.

My passion is to create a better society for our future citizens.

The future of any corporation is as good as the value system of the leaders and followers in the organization.

When you run a part of the relay and pass on the baton, there is no sense of unfinished business in your mind. There is just the sense of having done your part to the best of your ability. That is it. The hope is to pass on the baton to somebody who will run faster and run a better marathon.