India Needs A Culture Of Honesty And No Favouritism: Narayana Murthy

India needs a culture of honesty, no favoritism, quicker decision-making, and hassle-less transactions to prosper as a country, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said on Thursday. Speaking at the Asia Economic Dialogue organized by the Ministry of External Affairs here, Murthy said only a small section works hard in the country and a majority of people have not imbibed the culture which is essential to fulfilling the aspirations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"We need to build a culture of quick decision making, quick implementation, hassle-less transactions, honesty in transactions, no favoritism," Murthy said, adding that the only common aspect joining all the developed countries are such cultural attributes. He said both India and China were of the same size in the late 1940s, but the northern neighbor has grown to be six times the size of India courtesy of the culture it has imbibed.

"There is a small section of India which works hard, which is honest, which has the good work ethic, discipline, by and large, this is not the predominant nature," Murthy said. Asking people not to call him an anti-national, he cited an experience of setting up a facility in Shanghai in 2006. He said the mayor of the Chinese city allocated a 25-acre land parcel selected by him the day after it was selected, and such a pace of movement is lacking in India.

He said corruption is existent at lower levels and added that those in higher levels are very honest."If we want the business people to stay only in India and do everything in India, I think they will be very happy to do. All that we are respectfully requesting is that quick decisions must be taken, they must be implemented quickly and they should be no harassment, no unnecessary hurdle," he said.

He also exhorted youngsters not to indulge in practices like moonlighting or insistence on working from home, saying ethics and laziness need to be given special focus."My fervent desire and humble desire to youngsters is please don't fall into this trap of I will moonlight, I will do work from home, I will come to office three days in a week," he said.