IT fuelled salary expectations...

Grand doyen of India’s highly successful IT sector says that the industry itself made workers expect more

N Narayana Murthy, who stepped down as Executive Chairman of Infosys last month, is quite clear that India’s much vaunted Information Technology sector has fuelled expectations, may be more than it should have.

Commenting on a recent survey which found that the level of satisfaction among Indian techies is on the wane, Murthy told Mumbai Mirror, “Expectations of IT employees are increasing with the sector’s growth. So, it’s like a treadmill. You keep walking on it, and your doctor keeps increasing the speed. A software engineer earning Rs 5 lakh a year now feels that he is earning lesser. Compare that to a doctor who may feel the same but only if he is stuck at Rs 2 lakh a year.”

Govt needs to get its act together

With competition increasing in the industry, Murthy feels that there is also an urgent need of speeding up reforms.

“On the government’s part, there are so many things to be done. There are many regulations. For example, norms

calling for a software firm to acquire an environmental clearance licence is stupid. When the sector is growing at the rate of about 35 per cent a year, the pace of new construction also has to match. Government takes at least a year-and-a-half to clear one construction project,” he said.

Manpower is the key

Though the country has achieved a lot in the IT sector, it will have to sustain it. “For sustaining growth, infrastructure will have to be improved.

We have the opportunity, it has come after a long time,” Murthy said.

He further added that India can sustain this growth if manpower is improved. “We need better education facilities, more English schools, and a better curriculum with IT education,” he pointed out.

Easy way? ‘ that’s bulls***!’

While, addressing a gathering of the Asian Institute of Management Alumni Association in the city, Murthy said, “If we want to grow, we will have to increase our exports, create more jobs, increase disposable incomes, bring more capital through FDI. If any politician, or anyone else says that there is another way of doing this, that’s bulls***!”