Indian businessman N. R. Narayana Murthy received honorary doctorate from AGH

Indian computer scientist and businessman N. R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder and longtime president of one of the largest companies in the world - Infosys, received on Wednesday an honorary doctorate from AGH in Kraków.

Receiving the title, Narayan Murthy said that Poland is always in his heart. "It is a great honour for me to be in the country of St. Maksymilian Kolbe, Copernicus, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Pope John Paul II, Frederic Chopin and many other distinguished citizens of the world. These people have inspired me and will continue to be my daily inspiration. For this reason, Poland is always in my heart" - said the businessman.

He also spoke about the beginnings of Infosys, its current activities and ideas. He mentioned the difficulties he and his six colleagues encountered when they were starting the company in the years when India did not support business. "It was supposed to be a professional corporation, founded by professionals and for professionals. We wanted to become a respectable corporation, respect of others was the most important thing for us. We also wanted to create high-income jobs for men and women in India and abroad. We wanted to show that in India you can create wealth in accordance with the law, ethics" - said the honorary doctor.

He noted that employees are the most valuable asset of the company and an environment conducive to learning, development should be created for them. He added that corporate success depends on satisfying and exceeding customer expectations.

Prof. Krzysztof Zieliński said in the eulogy that Narayana Murthy was "a person with special achievements in the field of IT industry organizations and global IT services, (...) a world-class computer scientist and manager".

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy was born in 1946 in Mysore, India. He is a graduate of the National Institute of Engineering in Mysore and the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.

He started his career as head of the development team at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. There, he designed the first timesharing computer system in India and BASIC interpreter for Electronic Corporation of India Limited.

In 1981, together with six computer scientists he founded Infosys, where he was president until 2002. Until 2014 he acted in managerial and advisory capacity. During that time, Infosys became a global company, currently employing 176 thousand people in dozens of countries around the world.

"Mr. Narayana Murthy developed and successfully implemented the so-called +Global Delivery Model+ in Infosys, which became the basis for the rapid development of IT outsourcing on a global scale, also in Poland" - said Prof. Zieliński and added that the rapid development of this industry can also be observed in Krakow, which in 2014 took first place in Europe as a centre for the provision of IT and BPO services, and has ninth place in the world.

"The development of this industry is based on the model developed by Mr. Narayana Murthy, and the industry in Kraków alone employs approx. 40 thousand employees. This way, Mr. Narayana Murthy directly contributed to the economic development of Kraków and creating our city’s brand as a global centre of services" - said Prof. Zieliński.

The company Infosys is present in Poland since 2007 and currently employs nearly 2.5 thousand people. The company provides services to clients around the world in more than 20 languages. The main areas of specialization of the Polish Infosys centre include financial and accounting services, purchasing, risk management, business transformation of companies.

For his contribution to economic development, especially industrial and IT technology development, Narayana Murthy has received 25 honorary doctorates from universities in India and abroad, as well as numerous other awards.

In 2012 he was listed by the magazine "Fortune" as one of 12 greatest entrepreneurs of all time, in 2005 he was in eighth place among the most respected business leaders according to "The Economist".

Narayana Murthy, as a businessman and innovator, has won numerous rankings organized, among others, by "Businessweek", "Time", "CNN", "Fortune", "Forbes", "Financial Times", "India Today".

Narayana Murthy is an influential adviser to Prime Minister of India. He serves or has served on the leadership of charities, as well as prestigious universities (including Stanford University, the University of Tokyo). He advises in the area of IT applications in several Asian countries.

After the ceremony, the 1st Polish-Indian IT Forum began at AGH - a two-day conference on cooperation between Poland and India in the field of modern technologies.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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