Ethics seen key to Infosys' success

Various technology giants to come out of India have been referred to as "the Indian Bill Gates," but the label seems particularly fitting for Mr. Murthy, founder and recently retired executive chairman of Infosys. Like Mr. Gates, whose mission was to bring computing to the masses, Mr. Murthy appears driven by social goals rather than a desire for riches.

He developed his desire to set up a firm as he hitchhiked his way home from Paris to India in the late 1970s. One of his less pleasant experiences on this epic 11-month trip crystallized his intentions.

Previously a staunch leftist, a 72-hour spell in a Soviet prison was, he said: "the last nail in the coffin of socialism for me. I decided I would conduct an experiment in entrepreneurship, and I embraced capitalism.

"I call myself 'a compassionate capitalist' -- I'm a capitalist in mind, but a socialist at heart. For me entrepreneurship is the only instrument for countries like India to solve the problem of its poverty, creating more and more jobs with higher and higher disposable income."

"In Infosys, a few of us have made lots of money, but there is still another section that has not. I believe it is our responsibility to ensure that those who have not made that kind of money have an opportunity to do so," he said.

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