Research is only path to a better India and world, says Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy
Bengaluru (PTI): IT industry veteran N R Narayana Murthy on Wednesday emphasised the need to strengthen India's national and institutional focus on research, saying it is the only path to make the country and the world a better place.
He called on India to create an aspirational, meritocratic and competitive research ecosystem that offers a rewarding environment for scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians and humanists.
Speaking at the announcement of the Infosys Prize 2025 here, Murthy quoted Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, and said research represents “the broadening of the mind” that leads to unravelling the mysteries of nature, seeing what others have not yet seen, and finding plausibly impossible solutions to the problems faced by humankind.
“The need of the day for our country is to strengthen our national and institutional focus on research for a better India and for a better world,” he said.
Murthy cited former US President Franklin D Roosevelt’s letter to Dr Vannevar Bush, head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development under his administration, saying it led to a monumental report titled "Science — The Endless Frontier" and to the formation of the National Science Foundation in the US.
He further said the report paved the way for America’s leadership in scientific and engineering research productivity, its space explorations, uninterrupted research funding, and the success of its universities, laboratories and corporations — making the US a superpower.
Quoting a range of thinkers from Jawaharlal Nehru to Richard Feynman, Alan Turing, Thomas Alva Edison and Jennifer Doudna, Murthy said curiosity, imagination and persistence form the bedrock of scientific discovery.
"Research in universities, laboratories, libraries and companies is born from such curiosity, imagination, Socratic questioning, daring and humility. Research effort needs audacity, daring, unbridled imagination and the ability not to be cowed down by failures,” he said.
He emphasised that research is also about not feeling defeated by failures, learning from them, avoiding mistakes in the future and improving continuously.
Murthy recalled that the much-respected economist-philosopher Dr Amartya Sen believed that development is freedom and conducted extensive research on how these two ideas are linked.
“Research in economics and social sciences guides us to understand how science and technology translate into prosperity, justice, equity, freedom and dignity. Research in the humanities reminds us that knowledge must always serve an ethical purpose.”
According to him, the voices of Franklin Roosevelt and Vannevar Bush, Jawaharlal Nehru and Richard Feynman, Alan Turing and Thomas Edison, Joseph Fourier and Manjul Bhargava, Milton Friedman and Amartya Sen and Charles Darwin and Jennifer Doudna underline a common theme — that research is humanity’s noblest collective enterprise.
“It demands courage, persistence and imagination. It bridges science and society, reason and values, and ethics and dignity,” he said.
Murthy said India must recommit itself to nurturing research ecosystems. “Such nurturing requires us to make this country an aspirational, meritocratic, competitive, welcoming, exciting, comfortable, rewarding and enjoyable place for researchers and their families — among our young scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians and humanists," he said.
"It is our sacred duty to ensure that these role models find a highly competitive intellectual environment that reveres a hierarchy of ideas rather than a hierarchy of titles and offices."
Murthy observed that creating such an ecosystem for research is an unfailing national duty, as research is the only means to make India and the world better places.
“This is the only way we can fulfil the dreams of our founding fathers, who sacrificed their lives to create an India where the poorest child in the remotest village would have access to nutrition, healthcare, shelter, education and an opportunity to lead a fulfilling life. That responsibility of fulfilling their dreams lies on the broad, daring, imaginative and caring shoulders of the Infosys Prize laureates of 2025,” he added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Jai Bhim: Slogan that energised Dalits was first given at this central Maharashtra village
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): 'Jai Bhim': These two words have come to symbolise the awakening and empowerment of the Dalit community in independent India, but not many people know how it originated.
The slogan, which also encapsulates the immense reverence in which Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is held, was first raised at the Makranpur Parishad, a conference organised at Makranpur village in Kannad teshil of today's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in Maharashtra.
Ambedkar, the chief architect of India's Constitution, died on December 6, 1956.
Bhausaheb More, the first president of the Scheduled Castes Federation of Marathwada, organised the first Makranpur Parishad on December 30, 1938.
Dr Ambedkar spoke at the conference and asked the people not to support the princely state of Hyderabad under which much of central Maharashtra then fell, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Pravin More, Bhausaheb's son.
"When Bhausaheb stood up to speak, he said every community has its own deity and they greet each other using the name of that deity. Dr Ambedkar showed us the path of progress, and he is like God to us. So henceforth, we should say 'Jai Bhim' while meeting each other. The people responded enthusiastically. A resolution accepting 'Jai Bhim' as the community's slogan was also passed," More told PTI.
"My father came in contact with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in his early years. Bhausaheb was aware of the atrocities the Nizam state committed on Dalits. He told Ambedkar about these atrocities, including the pressure to convert. Dr Ambedkar was strongly against these atrocities, and he decided to attend the 1938 conference," he said.
As Ambedkar was against the princely states, he was banned from giving speeches in the Hyderabad state but was allowed to travel through its territories. The Shivna river formed the border between Hyderabad and British India. Makranpur was chosen as the venue for the first conference because it was on the banks of Shivna but lay in the British territory, ACP More said.
The stage made of bricks, from where Dr Ambedkar addressed the conference, still stands. The conference is organised on December 30 every year to carry forward Ambedkar's thought, and the tradition was not discontinued even in 1972 when Maharashtra experienced one of the worst droughts in it history.
"My grandmother pledged her jewellery for the conference expenses. People from Khandesh, Vidarbha and Marathwada attended it. Despite a ban imposed by the Nizam's police, Ambedkar's followers crossed the river to attend the event," said ACP More.
"This is the 87th year of Makranpur Parishad. We have deliberately retained the venue as it helps spread Ambedkar's thought in rural areas," he added.
_vb_69.jpeg)