Rs 126 cr bonanza for Infosys staff

IT major Infosys kicked off its silver-jubilee celebrations in a grand way on Sunday, announcing a cash bonanza of Rs 126 crore (Rs 1.26 billion) for its 58,000 employees worldwide.

The announcement was made by Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy, much to the surprise of the employees, who had gathered in thousands to be part of the celebrations at the company's Mysore Global Education Centre campus.

"I would like to announce that the trustees of Infosys Employees Welfare Trust, an independent body, have decided and communicated to us that they will distribute a part of the corpus of the trust amount -- Rs 126 crore -- to all of its beneficiaries, so that the employees of Infosys commemorate the silver jubilee celebrations of the company," he told the gathering in the presence of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Infosys President & MD Nandan Nilekani, and COO Kris Gopalakrishnan.

He went on to add: "The trustees have also decided that each of the beneficiaries will get a certain amount, depending on the tenure in the company. The exact details will be communicated by the trustees separately to all the beneficiaries."

Looking back at Infosys' growth story, Narayana Murthy pointed out that success had come only through hard work and determination.

"We have bigger challenges and rewards ahead of us. I will not be there when all of these are achieved. But I know that we have a wonderful set of people led by Nandan, Kris and others. We all have to remember one thing, and that is: aspirations, courage, principles and innovation and relentless focus on execution will carry you all to that great success you want to achieve," he said.

Nandan Nilekani pointed out that the silver-jubilee celebrations of the company would be held throughout the year at Infosys's campuses around the world.