Features

Indian IT Giant Narayana Murthy Readies to Retire

By Priya George

The man who nailed India on the world's IT map retires on August 20, 2006. "On August 20, I will complete 60 years and as per company policy, I will retire. From August 21, I will, if the board of directors decides, continue as the Non-Executive Chairman. The board will also decide on the Chief Mentor because the Chief Mentor has to be an executive person who will come to the office every day,'' Mr. Murthy said.

Infosys, founded by NR Narayana Murthy, along with six others in 1981, with contributions of Rs. 10,000 each, has extended into an IT empire that employs 52,000 people, churning revenues of USD 2.15 billion and a market capitalisation of USD 21 billion.

Narayana Murthy has received several honors and awards during the years. They include:

The ET Businessperson Of The Year Award [2000-2001]
The Max Schmidheiny Award – 2001

He has been featured in the Asiaweek Power 50 (June 2000) -- a list of Asia's Most Powerful People

He has been named by Business Week as one of the Top Entrepreneurs of the Year 1999
He was chosen as the Business India's 'Businessman of the Year 1999', the Indian corporate world's most coveted award

Business Week chose him as one of 'The Stars of Asia' for three successive years, in 1998, 1999 and 2000

He has been awarded the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award for 1996-97

He has been conferred with the Distinguished Alumni Award for the year 1998 by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

He is the Co-Chairman of the Indo-British Partnership

He is a member of the Asia Society's International Council and Board of Councilors of the University of Southern California School of Engineering and is also on the Wharton Business School's Asian Executive Board

TIME magazine’s 'Global Tech Influentials' list (August 2004) named Mr. Murthy as one of the ten leaders who are helping shape the future of technology.

Narayana Murthy has no worries of a retired life as he intends to keep busy as a member of the board of several other companies. He said he had no plans to get into politics. "I'm not suited for that. Even if there is an offer from political parties, I would not be interested,'' he emphasized.


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