Corrupt are becoming role-models for youth: Murthy

Bangalore: Are India’s corrupt and the dishonest becoming role-models for youngsters of the country? Software icon NR Narayana Murthy believes so.
"The number of role-models that our youngsters can look up to is decreasing. How many people in our public life can you be proud of for honesty, courage, commitment and hardwork? And that number is dwindling, the co-founder of Infosys Ltd said.

"Our youngsters don’t have role-models to look up to and therefore and sadly because of corruption, some of the people who are doing exactly the opposite, dishonest, deceit, `chalta hai’ and all of that...they are becoming more and more powerful, they are becoming wealthier", the Chairman Emeritus of the Bangalore-headquartered IT major, listed on the NASDAQ, said. "Therefore, our youngsters are getting the wrong signals. They think maybe this is the way to succeed. I don’t blame them", Murthy said at a function here last night to release the book "Upwordly Mobile" written by Founder and CEO of cross-cultural training and services firm Global Adjustments, Ranjini Manian.
He also said Indians are perhaps the mostm "thin-skinned" people in the world. "We see insults where none is meant. We get upset very easily. We think that somebody is out to make India look bad. That’s not true".
Murthy said Indians put the interest of their family ahead of society which "has caused enormous damage to the country". In someway, there is good way of balancing in the West between the two.
He also said that Bhagavad Gita does give "all of us a path to peace of mind. That’s what I found", he observed, adding, the Gita has nothing to do with any religion. It’s a way of life, like Hinduism, Murthy added. Ranjini said with 3138 foreign companies currently registered and operating in India and one lakh new MBA graduates in India every year, scope for cultural misunderstandings due to a lack of a common norm of global behaviour is infinite.

"As Indians increasingly engage with foreigners and foreign companies, cultural intelligence is a crucial tool to succeed in doing business with people to work, dress and behave differently, yet we have to make a concerted effort to understand", she said.

The book is designed to equip Indian managers and their expatriate colleagues with cultural intelligence tools to succeed in business, it was stated. "Every child can learn all the three languages very comfortably. Therefore, the child will have (employment) opportunities with the State, opportunities within the country and opportunities within the globe," Murthy said.
"So, it’s just a question of taking hard decision and it?s just a question of our realizing that our children have enormous potential. Let’s try this three-language formula."
Giving an example, he said a child from Maharashtra coming to study in any grade in Karnataka should be made to learn Kannada of class one, as he stressed the need to respect state language and benefit enormously from local culture.

"Whenever anybody comes from other states, as long as their children start with first year (learning the local language) in whatever languages?.Kannada?.Tamil? or whatever State they are in, that?s okay. Then children will learn the language and it?s easy for them and at the same time they respect the (local) culture and language of the State, he observed.

"Not just for Westerners, for people who come from other States, I think it’s important to learn the local language. It?s not to make you more efficient, more productive but to appreciate the nuances of the culture and to appreciate all the good things that the culture offers," he added.
PTI