The co-founder of Infosys, NR Narayana Murthy, emphasized the growing population of India as a significant concern on 18th August during the convocation ceremony at the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. He added that the nation’s sustainability has been threatened by the lack of focus on population management since the Emergency era. “India faces significant challenges related to population, per capita land availability, and healthcare facilities,” he expressed during his address at the institution where he was invited as the chief guest.
He then compared India to other countries including China and the United States and stated, “Since the Emergency period, we Indians have not paid enough attention to population control. This poses a risk of making our country unsustainable. In comparison, countries such as the US, Brazil and China have far higher per capita land availability.” He also discussed the responsibility of a true professional to advance the country’s growth. “This contribution depends on having high aspirations, dreaming big and working hard to turn those dreams into reality.”
He also touched on the significance of the sacrifices made by one generation to advance the interests of the following and voiced, “One generation must make many sacrifices to improve the lives of the next. My parents, siblings and teachers made significant sacrifices for my progress and my presence here as the chief guest is proof that their sacrifices were not in vain.”
1,670 degrees were handed out at the convocation ceremony. 34 gold medals were presented to postgraduate students and 13 to those who were undergraduates.
The ace businessman earlier caused controversy last year in October when he suggested that young people should work seventy hours a week to increase the nation’s total output on the 3one4 Capital podcast “The Record.” He conveyed, “I request that our youngsters must say, ‘This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week’.” During the 26th Bengaluru Tech Summit in September of that year, Narayana Murthy highlighted his distaste for freebies and stated that “nothing should be given for free” in an open discussion with Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha. He also believed that a “poor” nation like India could accelerate its development with the aid of compassionate capitalism.
