Infosys Chief Mentor urges for improvement in infrastructure

Bangalore, May 9 (UNI) Infosys Technologies Limited Chairman and Chief Mentor Narayana Murthy today reiterated his demand for improving infrastructure to retain Karnataka as the IT hub in the Country.

Speaking after receiving the 'Citizen Extraordinaire-2006' by Prestige Group in association with Rotary Bangalore Mid town, in recognition of Mr Murthy's commitment to the city of Bangalore, he said the State contributed over 36 per cent of IT exports and was growing at an impressive rate of over 35 per cent.

Alleging the improvement in infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airport, hospitality industry and education was not in pace with the growth of IT industries, Mr Murthy also expressed concern the quality of education, the industry is not getting quality engineers.

Mr Murthy said the IT industry in Bangalore has provided over one million jobs including three lakh engineering graduates and was all set to add another two lakh employment this year. He said that no other industries in the history of the country have provided such a large number of jobs. With over 1600 IT companies having established their base the City contributes over USD 8.25 billion worth IT products exports.

He said with adding infrastructure facilities on par with the growth of the IT industry the State can register double the present export volume.

Mr Murthy also called for providing full autonomy to educational institutions with full freedom to see them become better sources of quality education. ''By denying access to English medium education to poor and oppressed classes we are doing great injustice and urged the state government to take steps to start English teaching from first standard itself.'' UNI MV MSP CH PC2304