ess Trust of India / Bangalore/New Delhi January 7, 2007
| Just days ahead of the third quarter results, Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy on Saturday said the IT giant will continue to focus on global markets for growth. "Infosys was founded on the principles of globalisation. We are not constrained by national boundaries. To us, the global market is seamless," he said while interacting with visiting students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business at the Infosys campus here. To a specific question from a student whether Infosys will focus more on Indian market on account of the growing economy, Murthy said: "We play an important role in different countries where we operate. We create jobs with good disposable incomes. We do not want to go on the basis of ideology. For, business cannot be managed on ideologies." He further said: "We are not hung up on serving India or US. We are hung up on serving our customers globally. That's our approach." However, he was quick to point out that Infosys had developed certain products, which were doing well in India: "We evolved the core banking package and we command 60% of the market share in India. Sometimes, we are ranked first or second depending on the agency conducting the survey. We can claim that Infosys has contributed to the increase in competitiveness of the banks. We will focus on the Indian market if it fits into our strategy." To another question on increasing political opposition in the US to offshoring business, Murthy said: "It sounds very strange that a nation, which lectured on opening up of borders, tends to get on hysterics on certain areas of globalisation." As many as 25 students representing 12 nationalities took part in the interaction. Another delegation from Cornell University, led by its President David J Skorton, also visited the Infosys campus on Saturday. MNCs in retail will help consumers: Murthy In the midst of a raging debate over allowing multinationals in the retail sector, Infosys mentor N R Narayana Murthy today favoured MNCs in the sector saying consumers will benefit from their entry. He also felt if Congress had a majority at the Centre, economic reforms would have moved at a much faster pace. "When we have opened it (retail sector) to large Indian groups, which means that mom and pop stores are likely to suffer anyway, why not open it to large multinationals," Murthy told Karan Thapar on a CNN-IBN show Devil's Advocate. When asked if he believes foreign direct investment should be permitted in the Indian retail sector, he said, "absolutely". Murthy said MNCs would bring the best technology and practices, and the consumer benefits at the end of the day. Talking on economic reforms, Murthy said: "I personally think we have one such leader with the vision, political capacity and courage to force through the change in Dr Manmohan Singh (but) unfortunately he leads a very fragile coalition. If he were to lead a majority Congress party government, I have no doubt at all he would have moved much much faster than he has been able to." |
