Make it easy for experts to come in and go out of the country, says Murthy

The Infosys founder said that this would help the institutions in the country emulate the great institutes in the world

India should make it easy for foreign intellectuals and experts to come here; likewise, Indian faculty and students should be able to visit foreign institutes to bring in quality at institutes of higher learnings in India, said Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy.

Speaking at the launch of N R Narayana Murthy Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research, set up by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT M) in the campus, Murthy said: “The aspiration for us has to be how can our institutes of higher learning emulate those great institutes. I am positive that the students and faculty of these institutes have the competence and inclination for that. Therefore, it is the task of our society, government, political leaders, bureaucrats, and the alumni of the institutes to make life easy for these people to achieve what they want. That is where I believe enhanced interaction with leading researchers, ability of our students to go to those places, and the ability of those people to travel easily to India at short notices, the ability of our students to attend conferences, perhaps exchange students... these things become extremely important.”

“I only hope that this nation, outside this ecosystem of the institutes, will cooperate with all these people to make our dream worthwhile and to ensure that India too receives its rightful place in the threshold of research in these areas,” he added.

According to Murthy, there should be more scholarships to Indian students to go abroad and study there.

While it’s easy for Indians to get Visas from any developed countries, Murthy said, many of his friends outside India had told him that getting Visa to visit India is not that easy. He said the country should change that perception. “It should not take more than 24 hours to get the Visas,” he said.

Murthy noted that the brain research activities initiated in IIT Madras, along with other overseas institute, would put India on the map of leading edge ideas in brain research.