Don’t Be So Greedy, Narayana Murthy Tells Senior IT Management Leaders

The salaries of freshers in the software industry have stayed stagnant while the same for senior-level employees have grown by up to 1,000 per cent.

Outlook Web Bureau

Updated on: 24 December 2017 1:30 pm

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy has slammed the trend of senior management members taking home high-wage hikes and termed worrisome that freshers and juniors are languishing with no hikes.

Murthy said that in this trying times, the senior managements have been apportioning to themselves, and has advised them to make "sacrifices" to maintain common man's faith in capitalism.

"I think that is not the way to make capitalism acceptable to the larger masses in a country that has huge poverty," he said, speaking at the IIT-Bombay over the weekend.

At the prestigious institute, Murthy said in the last seven years, the salaries of freshers in the software industry have stayed stagnant while the same for senior-level employees have grown by up to 1,000 per cent.

"If we believe in capitalism, if we believe that is the best solution for the country to move forward, then the leaders of capitalism will have to demonstrate self-restraint in apportioning to themselves the part of the benefits that come out of running companies, Murthy, who mostly flies the economy class, added.

Murthy, a strong proponent of "compassionate capitalism" since his days in the company, did not make any reference to Infosys. It can be noted that over the past few months, Murthy had gone public with his displeasure over senior executive compensation at Infosys.

"If all of us make sacrifices, then the youngsters will understand," he said.

The domestic IT sector employs over 4 million directly and its revenues have crossed over USD 150 billion, according to industry lobby Nasscom.

The lobby warned that the rate of hiring is slowing down, while some IT companies concede that a fewer number of people are required to do the work for the same revenue billing.

Murthy dismissed the commonly attributed threats of artificial intelligence and automation as "more hype than reality".

However, change in the technological landscape where automation and artificial intelligence are said to be making deeper in-roads was dismissed by him.

"There is this whole thing about automation and artificial intelligence. That is much more hype than the reality, at least in the software services," Murthy said.

He said the IT sector is passing through a trough that is cyclical in nature and may occur once a few years.