Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, took to the stage at the Kalichand Memorial Lecture in Mumbai to share a personal journey and his vision of ‘compassionate capitalism’.

Reflecting on his life, Murthy recounted a pivotal moment in 1974: a lonely, hungry and cold 21-hour journey on a freight train from Nis (now Serbia) to Istanbul while hitchhiking back to ‘India after working in Paris.

“The issue of great poverty and inequality in our country has preoccupied me since that day when I spent 21 hours alone, hungry, cold, angry and introspective in the freight compartment of a freight train from Nis, in what is now Serbia, to Istanbul in 1974 on my hitchhiking trip back to India after my work in Paris,” Narayan Murthy said in his speech.

Murthy pointed to his own life and work as evidence of how entrepreneurship can address poverty. “I have had some success in demonstrating the power of entrepreneurship to solve the problem of poverty through my experiment of creating Infosys,” he said.

However, his optimism is tempered by the challenges that remain. “Not a single day goes by that I don’t feel confused, helpless, agitated and motivated that our leaders will find a solution to this problem.”

Murthy has long spoken about the role of discipline and hard work in driving social change. “My parents told me that the only way I could escape the orbit of poverty was through honesty, discipline and a good work ethic,” he shared.

He emphasized that putting community interests above personal gain ultimately leads to self-improvement.

Murthy recently courted controversy by suggesting that young Indians commit to longer working hours, taking inspiration from post-war Japan and Germany. “With a per capita income of $2,300, India is a poor country. To become a middle-income country, it will take 16-18 years, even with an 8% growth rate,” he said, advocating a return to a six-day work week to improve productivity.

Born in 1946 in Sidlaghatta, Karnataka, Murthy’s rise began with degrees in Electrical Engineering from NIE Mysore and IIT Kanpur. Rejecting lucrative jobs, he became Chief Systems Programmer at IIM Ahmedabad, working on India’s first time-sharing computer system with Professor J. Krishnayya. In 1981, he co-founded Infosys, a company that would revolutionize India’s technology industry and contribute significantly to its economic growth.