Unfair criticism of NRN and Infosys

Create excellent, world-class school textbooks in Kannada in maths and science. Encourage students to take part in Kannada events. Kannada must be made attractive to children, but not by shutting off some other language.

Language matters a lot. Even today, when I speak to my family, it’s in Kannada as that’s what I am comfortable with. There are emotions I can express only in Kannada. But when I have to read an article on technology, I understand it’s best in English because that’s the lingua franca of that domain. It’s all based on transactions on certain domains. You need Kannada, you need English, you need Hindi.

We are the only software company which has operations in three cities in the state: Bangalore, Mangalore and Mysore. We were the first Indian software company to start operations in Bangalore much before it became fashionable to do so. Since 1983, we have made 55,000 offers to the children of Karnataka. This is higher than any other company in the state’s history.

Infosys is the company that has paid the highest tax in Karnataka. I am the only CEO in the country’s history who has argued several times that there should be no tax exemption for software exporters. For the year ending March 2011, we would have paid Rs 2,100 to 2,300 crore in tax. Till December, we had paid Rs 1,600 crore.
    
Sometimes, because of difference in interpretation among various income tax department officials, the department raises additional demands on companies. In the history of Infosys right from 1992, when first such additional demands were made, we have fought it up to the tribunal and 99% of the time, the extra money we have paid has been returned to us with interest. To claim we have evaded tax is completely unjustified. In a civilized society we shouldn’t make such statements.

The above are excerpts from an interview of the redoubtable Sri N R Narayanamurthy in the ToI. For the full text, click here.

An overwhelming majority of Kannadiga's (and Indians), I am sure, have the greatest admiration for NRN. The government couldn't have chosen a better person to inaugurate the World Kannada Meet.

And, by making the uncalled for comments, the likes of Sri Bargur Ramachandra have only negated the cause of Kannada and Karnataka. One would have thought literature helped in furthering enlightenment. Apparently, not fully so.

Muralidhar Rao