Narayana Murthy blasts bureaucracy

Squarely blaming the bureaucracy for India's slow progress, Infosys mentor Narayana Murthy said in order to bring accountability, the government needs to start performance-linked incentives.

"There is no linkage between performance and reward in our governments. Hence, most projects get delayed inordinately," Murthy said while delivering the fourth Nani Palkhiwala lecture in Mumbai on 'Making Globalisation Work for India'.

However, he added that most of the delays in execution had very little to do with our political system, rather it was the lack of attention to speed and excellence.

Maintaining that the administrative mindset has to be changed with the managerial one, he said that a large part of the bureaucrats' salary must depend on the progress of projects handled by them.

"This is the best way to bring accountability among them," he claimed. Murthy added that the bureaucrats had to learn to stand up for their beliefs and values rather than be subdued by their 'respect' for their superiors -political or otherwise.

Asserting on the country's need to embrace speed if it were to succeed in today's globalised world, he said that the decision making in government had to improve on a daily basis so that it could catch up with countries like China.

He did not even spare politicians in his address, saying "our politicians say one thing when they are in government and exactly opposite when they are in the opposition. "To achieve fast progress, all the political parties have to be on the same page," he said.

Instead of playing zero-sum game and taking sides, the leaders must learn the way in which jobs could be created and encourage it, he said. Murthy also pitched in for more liberalisation in the country, which would pave the way for more foreign investment.

Ridiculing the country's retreat on allowing 74 per cent foreign ownership in telecom citing the excuse of "security", he said, such steps only reflect the country's enslaved mindset even after 59 years of independence.