N R Narayana Murthy: IITs do not know much research

Infosys Co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, said that he had a lot of hope for the NEP while adding that Indians needed to look beyond the IITs for a benchmark in research. Responding to a question on what he thought of the standard of research in India's premier institutes of Technology, he said, "IITs are good education schools. But they don't know much research."

He also said that the new National Education Policy is something that aims to improve the quality of education in the country. Murthy was talking to the students and faculty of the Great Lakes Institute of Management in a virtual event.

However, he says that the NEP only aids the change and the real transformation will happen only if skills of curiosity, pluralism and open-mindedness are instilled in children from an early age. "Change requires a whole lot of effort. We must recognise the need to transform our children into proactive problem recognisers and solvers," said Murthy. He also said that schools and colleges in India must start having Open Book Examinations.

Sharing the tips and tricks of entrepreneurship, Murthy said that a good entrepreneur must have an idea that has never occurred to anyone in the world. "Such ideas are rare. The ones we have around us aplenty are the improvement of existing ideas. Make sure your ideas outperform all the existing ideas. Also, express them in simple sentences for others to understand. Later, conduct an inexpensive and quick test marketing," he said. Murthy also said that a good entrepreneur possesses the values of competency, leadership. learnability, courage, the spirit of sacrifice, gratification and a sound value system

While hard work is quite important, Murthy did not disregard the importance of luck in one's life. "I believe that God has been kind to me and to Infosys. I have had classmates who were smarter than me and had better ideas. But they never got the opportunities that I got. God chose to smile at me more than anyone. One must work hard and pray for God's blessings," he said, reminding the students to not be disheartened at their failures. "We must look at setbacks as opportunities. There will be setbacks, but God wants you to work harder and be stronger. Introspect the reasons why you failed," he said.