Be daringly inventive to tackle problems of today: NR Narayana Murthy at Infosys Prize ceremony

Infosys Founder NR Narayana Murthy today, November 15 called out the need for spending $1 billion annually to train teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to foster better education in India. Further, he stressed the need to create 2,500 institutions to train primary and secondary school teachers by spending $20 billion over the next two decades, as stated in a report by IANS.

In this regard, he suggested inviting 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from all over the globe and India. Speaking at the Infosys Prize ceremony hosted by Infosys Science Foundation, the founder said, “One possible way of accelerating NEP’s outcome is to invite 10,000 retired highly accomplished teachers from the developed worlds and from India in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to create 2,500 ‘train the teacher’ colleges across India."

Further, he said, "We will be able to train 250,000 primary school teachers and 2,50,000 secondary school teachers every year by this method. These trained Indian teachers can themselves become trainers over a period of five years. We should pay about $100,000 a year," he said, while also stressing the need for providing better facilities and pay to teachers.

Murthy said that India is still in stage one “in some important areas like design of livable cities, pollution management, traffic management and providing clean and safe water”. Therefore, India must aspire for stage 4 in innovation and invention, where it becomes an inventor of new processes, products, and services, he noted.

Award ceremony

Awarding the Infosys Prize 2023 to six individuals for their remarkable contributions to scientific research in India, he said, “Learnability, creativity and innovation are the ways to navigate our fast-changing world. We must be daringly inventive to tackle the daunting and persistent problems of today”.

The awards were in six categories:  

Engineering and Computer Science, 

Humanities, 

Life Sciences, 

Mathematical Sciences, 

Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000 (or its equivalent in INR).