JGU University Day: Narayana Murthy Says Ideas and Enterprise Are Key to India’s Development

October 2, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

N.R. Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys, said ideas and enterprise are essential to job creation and India’s journey towards becoming a developed nation. He was speaking at the 17th University Day of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), where he was the chief guest.

Speaking on ‘Ethical Leadership, Transformative Growth & Technology – The Infosys Story & the Future of India’, Murthy emphasised the importance of integrity, honesty, hard work and respect in leadership. He urged students to prioritise ethical conduct over personal gain and make decisions that earn the respect of society and stakeholders.

“The softest pillow is a clear conscience,” he said, adding that doing the right thing becomes easier when it is established as a benchmark.

Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, Murthy said his first company had failed before he went on to establish Infosys. He described failure as a series of steps towards success, urging students to learn from mistakes, avoid inaction and approach challenges through rational thinking and perseverance.

In his opening address, Prof. C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of JGU, said institutions are sustained by values, integrity, excellence and responsible leadership. He highlighted the university’s aim of strengthening India’s position in global education and knowledge creation, while emphasising the importance of preserving opportunities for future generations.

Prof. Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, Registrar of JGU, drew parallels between the founding visions of Infosys and the university, noting that both institutions emphasise integrity, long-term purpose and excellence.

The event also featured the release of the JGU Research Report 2026. Prof. Arpita Gupta, Dean of Research, said the university’s research ecosystem had produced 11,000 research articles, including nearly 800 student contributions to Scopus-indexed publications. She noted that the research covered areas including artificial intelligence, smart cities, climate change, entrepreneurship, healthcare, gender and micro-credit.

Jairaj, former Additional Chief Secretary of the Karnataka government, delivered the special address, while Prof. R. Sudarshan, Dean of the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, introduced the chief guest. Prof. Hindol Sengupta, Executive Dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs, delivered the concluding remarks and vote of thanks.

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“Every teacher must aspire to provide the highest level of learning. Many exams in Indian higher education fall under the lowest category in Bloom’s hierarchy: remember and recollect. With the technological revolution, students approaching an exam have easy access to an abundance of information, while surveillance technology struggles to keep pace. The question is not whether technological development is desirable, but how, as a teacher and writer, I am going to grapple with new technology. Do I really rethink the questions I ask in the exam? How can I ask questions that focus on understanding, analysis, evaluation and creativity rather than rote learning? I am incapable of making a definitive judgment. My critical self-examination ends with more questions than answers. Who would help me find answers to seemingly ‘nonsensical’ questions — my old teachers, colleagues, students, parents, employers, the state, or a chatbot?”

- Malish C M, The Indian Express, (30/9)

“Students are treated as adults when fees, performance, and responsibility are demanded from them, but as children when autonomy, voice, or due process become inconvenient. Harshness is then defended as character-building, and obedience is conflated with ‘respect’. We have built educational experiences around discipline and dizzying hierarchies, where dissent is likely to be labelled as indiscipline, political activism, or disrespect. Distress is then located inside the student, while the university itself appears as a neutral background, but is not. Counselling may help a student respond to these pressures, but it cannot remove them. Time management cannot solve an impossible workload; mindfulness cannot make an opaque grading system transparent; positive thinking cannot make a compromised grievance process trustworthy. Students should be treated as rights-bearing adults and should be made active participants in institutional governance. The harder question is whether universities are willing to examine the conditions they create.”

- Jaison Manjaly, The Indian Express, (22/9)

JGU University Day: Narayana Murthy Says Ideas and Enterprise Are Key to India’s Development

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