Narayana Murthy stated that entrepreneurs often have shares rather than abundant capital in the early stages of their startups.
Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy emphasized the urgent need for a revamp of "archaic rules" that hinder entrepreneurs from contributing shares to academic institutions. He highlighted that entrepreneurs typically have shares rather than ample capital in the early stages of their startups. This was expressed during the Infosys Science Foundation’s media briefing.
“We have to change some of the archaic rules. For example, even today, an entrepreneur cannot donate shares,” he remarked when asked about the contribution of alumni and the industry to academic institutions.
Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan echoed this sentiment, stating, “More is needed... Look at the US universities, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, etc. They get endowments in billions of dollars. Today, our institutions primarily depend on government funding, I would like to see equal funding, I want to see more industry participation.”
Narayana Murthy also referenced his wife Sudha Murthy’s 1995 attempt to donate ₹4.5 crore to the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, indicating that the amount could have been valued at ₹3,000 crore today if the rules had been different.
