| A few weeks ago a letter from a reader, Dr Sivasubramanian
in Chennai, landed on my desk. What he wrote struck a chord, for he bemoaned the lack of
positive stories on our covers. If anything, he said, we owed it to our youth to be
inspiring. "To give them something to look up to, to portray the ideal they should
strive to imitate in their future. Instead they get disillusionment." This week Dr Sivasubramanian will have reason to smile. For we have good news
on our cover. About a band of men in the software industry whose amazing success stories
make them immediate role models. In an economy enveloped in gloom they are India's most
credible calling card. This year, if the industry reaches the promised figure of Rs 16,000
crore, it'll be among India's five top export earners.
The men behind these miracles were mainly from middle-class
families, brilliant and bound together by a fascination for technology. But it was not
easy. When Infosys was started 18 years ago, Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy and his friends
could fork out just Rs 10,000; today you can buy only three shares of the company with
that money.
The story was written by Senior Editor Sumit Mitra, with
additional reporting by Associate Editor Amarnath K. Menon in Hyderabad and Special
Correspondent K.M. Thomas in Chennai. Mitra, who travelled to Bangalore and Mumbai for the
story, was impressed by this upbeat community. "No one wore pin-stripes, the average
age was 26, and if there was a college-room atmosphere to their offices, they were also
constantly stimulating each other and generating ideas."
Unlike many large Indian business houses which have grown by
virtue of protected markets at home, these men have triumphed in the international
marketplace. And in the fastest growing and most competitive of industries. As a new
millennium dawns, they are truly the pride of India.
(Aroon Purie) |
