July 22, Yeejleer³e He ewðeesefiekeàer mebmleeve ieeboeerveiej. Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

Transcription

1 July 22, 2012 Address by Chief Guest Yeejleer³e He ewðeesefiekeàer mebmleeve ieeboeerveiej Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

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3 Being a Patriot Convocation Address by N. R. Narayana Murthy Chairman Emeritus Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India

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5 Dr. Ramesh Mashelkar, Dr. Sudhir Jain, members of the governing board, members of the Senate, faculty, staff, students, parents of the graduating students, guests and most, importantly, graduating students, my sincere thanks to you all for giving me this unique opportunity of speaking at this first convocation. First convocation is a historic occasion and marks the realization of dream, commitment, innovation, and hard work of the founding fathers of this budding institution. We must all be grateful to them for their contribution. I feel honored to be here today with two extraordinary individuals connected with this institution. The Chairman is a unique individual. Even if you subtract from him, his FRS, his scholarship and his achievements in institution building, in my opinion, he remains a great individual. He is a role model for me and many others for positivity, patriotism and professionalism. He makes everybody in his company an inch taller and a smile happier. Your Director is an academic and educational administrator par excellence. Most professors that I know at IIT Kanpur talk about his excellence in scholarship. I worked with him when he was the Dean at IIT Kanpur in fund raising from the alumni. I believe his work at IIT Kanpur in fund raising is a model for every professional engaged in development. Congratulations to the passing out students. In the US, this occasion is called Commencement because you are commencing your journey of translating your education to the benefit of the world. May every one of you realize your potential fully and wholly to make this country and the world a

6 better place for all of us. You have received an excellent education from your professors and staff. I am in full agreement with that. Therefore, I will speak on another important topic. That is, becoming a patriotic Indian. When I left IIT Kanpur after my graduate studies and went abroad to Paris in the early seventies, India was seen by most foreigners as a condemned and pitiable land of dogma, empty vanity, filth, poverty, illiteracy, low achievement and diseases. You pass out at a time when India is the cynosure of all eyes. The world expects India to be one of the leaders to solve global problems of politics and economics. India sits at the high table in most major multilateral deliberations. What India says is heard with attention and seriousness. Unlike me when I was young, you have that rare opportunity and extraordinary responsibility of strengthening this new-found respectability. What is patriotism? To me, patriotism is not just singing our national anthem or draping myself in our national flag. They are important and necessary but not sufficient. To me, patriotism is about working ethically and wholeheartedly in our chosen sphere to enhance public good. What do I mean by that? It means working efficiently, swiftly, effectively, honestly and in a co-operative manner with the interfaces of the state and central governments to make our public governance strong, robust and enduring. It is about conducting ourselves in a manner that enhances the confidence of our next generation in our public institutions. It

7 is about making the next generation proud of our country through our actions. It is also about enhancing the prestige of India abroad through our performance on international platforms. Naturally, you will ask what you, a first-class engineer, can do in this gigantic task of improving public governance. After all, being engineers, there is not much interaction you would have with the state agencies unless you are a civil servant. Let me suggest a few things that you can do to make India stronger. You have to develop high aspirations in matters of public good. Aspirations build civilizations. You must aspire that India becomes the best-administered country in the world, and a model of fairness, transparency and accountability. You want every Indian to have the best standard of living in the world. You want India to be the largest exporter in the world. You want India to have a seat on the Security Council. You want India to have the best educational system in the world so that every other nation must want to send their young men and women to India for education like the US is today. You want India to have the best defense forces in the world. I can go on and on. You get the point, right? These may appear impossible but it is better to aspire to plausibly impossible stuff than convincingly possible stuff. These things do not happen because of mere speeches and slogans. They happen because of performance. Unless you translate your aspirations to actions they do not mean a thing.

8 I want you to remember that performance leads to recognition. Recognition leads to respect. Respect leads to power. Therefore, my friends, there is only one way to make India a powerful nation. That is through performance. Aspirational performance requires that you create aspirational targets, and work hard, fast, smart, honest and in a disciplined manner over a long period of time to achieve these targets. Remember that discipline, speed of decision making, and velocity of action are necessary attributes for high performance. You have excellent role models in such tasks in fellow IITian like Satyendra Dubey. You may not always be able to add any direct value to this effort of raising the quality of public governance. But, if you etch such high aspirations in your mind, you will conduct yourself as a high class citizen and do the best you can to help and influence others around you to make these aspirational dreams a reality. Such high aspirations build up your character. They make you a better human being. Better performance comes from benchmarking with people, organizations and nations that are better than us. When Indian companies started exporting they realized that benchmarking with the global best was the sure way to succeed in the global market and to compete with the global best even in the domestic market. This brought better respect to India abroad and better value to the domestic customers. Therefore, please benchmark with the global best in whatever you do.

9 Once you start benchmarking and competing with the global best, the next step for you is to aim to be the leader there. You become a leader by creating a set of next practices. Next practices happen because of innovation. Let me demystify innovation for you. Every day, in whatever you do, just ask how you can make it cheaper, faster and better. I believe that innovation must become part of the DNA of every organization from the janitor to the Chairman. These days, most aspirational tasks are huge and need team work. Team work requires you to rise above gender, caste, religion, race, regionalism and nationality. To do so, you must subordinate your ego and eliminate bias by deciding every issue using data and facts in an environment of courtesy and dignity, openness, fairness, transparency, accountability and meritocracy. You have to be generous and share credit with other members of the team. You have to create trust and confidence in them through your actions. We, Indians, are not known for humility. Even the famous Persian logician and writer, Al Barouni, has commented on it after spending 32 years in India in the tenth century AD and holding discussions with several Indian pundits. You must change this lacuna in our psyche. Humility requires grace, courtesy and generosity when you are powerful. That is the best way to win over your critics.

10 We are also the most thin-skinned people. We have to learn to take criticisms objectively. Therefore, when somebody criticizes you or India, do not lose temper. Sit down with him or her, ask for data and facts, and argue rationally. Hold the argument in a courteous and agreeable manner. That is the best way to win over your critics. If the other party has better data than you, accept their argument, learn from them and become a better-informed person. Some of you will work in international teams. To be successful in such efforts, you have to communicate what you want to achieve clearly and unambiguously. You must learn to commit to specific quantifiable targets. You must learn to bring bad news to the table early and pro-actively. You have to embrace the universal values of discipline, openness to new ideas, meritocracy, honesty, courtesy, fairness, accountability and respect for other cultures. Remember that this institution has given you a passport to better respect and prosperity for yourself. The hallmark of a civilized individual is to show gratitude to those that have made you more than what you were. Therefore, please contribute generously to make this institution stronger to serve even a larger number of smart people like you. Remember the words of John Kennedy who said that a society, that cannot help many who are poor, cannot save the few who are rich. Your betterment lies in the betterment of the entire

11 society. Therefore, please contribute in kind and cash to bring smile to the poorer sections of the society around you. Let me now move to a very important responsibility of yours in showing your patriotism. Democracy does not stop at holding fair and free elections once in five years. It requires electing merited candidates who will show courage and character to make every sacrifice required to legislate and govern honestly, smartly, swiftly and with integrity of thought and purpose. Democracy succeeds only if we create strong and enduring institutions of the state, and effective watchdogs of the civil society. Therefore, please register to vote. Spend some time in evaluating candidates, overcoming biases of caste and religion. Chose the candidates solely based on their performance. Please go to the polling booth on the voting day, and cast your vote. Participate in public movements that fight injustice, bigotry, nepotism and corruption. This is your sacred duty, one that has to be discharged mandatorily if you want to be a patriotic Indian and if you want a better India. Finally, remember that a happy mind achieves bigger things than otherwise. Therefore, have fun, be happy, and make people around you happy. The other day, a colleague of mine passed on a short piece on success. I do not know who the author is. I want to share it with you. To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of

12 children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty and to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better whether by a good child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. I am sure that every one of you will be successful. Thank you.

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14 Yeejleer³e He ewðeesefiekeàer mebmleeve ieeboeerveiej Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar