Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy urges businesses to treat employees as humans, reduce gap between...

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy has urged businesses to adopt ‘compassionate capitalism’ by treating employees with respect and reducing the pay gap between top executives and entry-level workers. Speaking at TiE Con Mumbai 2025 in a conversation with Harish Mehta, former president of TiE Mumbai, Murthy emphasised the need for fairness in corporate culture.

Murthy believes that India’s future growth and poverty reduction depend on businesses embracing capitalism in a humane way. He explained that capitalism creates opportunities, drives innovation, and generates jobs, which in turn helps reduce poverty. He stressed that job creation by entrepreneurs—not government handouts—will truly eradicate poverty.

“If we create innovative enterprises, poverty will disappear like dew on a sunny morning,” Murthy said. He encouraged entrepreneurs to focus on building businesses that provide large-scale employment rather than relying on welfare schemes.

Murthy also commented on India’s welfare programs, pointing out that 80 crore people receive monthly cash transfers. While acknowledging he is not an expert in politics or governance, he suggested that government benefits should come with conditions to ensure positive outcomes.

For example, he proposed that households receiving free electricity could be randomly surveyed to check if children’s education has improved or if parents are more involved in their studies.

The IT veteran also criticised many artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, calling them “silly, old programs” that are being marketed as cutting-edge technology. He clarified that AI primarily consists of machine learning and deep learning but is often overhyped.