Narayana Murthy: Research Is the Essential Path to Building a Better India and World

Scientific discovery fundamentally rests on curiosity, imagination, and persistence, according to Narayana Murthy, who emphasized this point during his address.

At the announcement ceremony for the Infosys Prize 2025 in Bengaluru, IT pioneer N R Narayana Murthy strongly advocated for enhancing India's research capabilities, stating that research represents the sole pathway toward national improvement and global betterment.

Murthy urged India to develop an aspirational, meritocratic research ecosystem that provides scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians, and humanists with a rewarding environment conducive to innovation and discovery.

Drawing on the wisdom of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, Murthy described research as "the broadening of the mind" that unveils nature's mysteries, reveals previously unseen phenomena, and generates seemingly impossible solutions to humanity's most pressing challenges.

"Our country urgently needs to strengthen both national and institutional research focus to create a better India and ultimately a better world," he emphasized.

Murthy referenced former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt's correspondence with Dr. Vannevar Bush, which culminated in the landmark report "Science — The Endless Frontier" and eventually led to the establishment of the National Science Foundation. This initiative, Murthy noted, laid the groundwork for America's scientific preeminence, space exploration achievements, sustained research funding, and the excellence of its academic institutions and corporations—factors that collectively elevated the United States to superpower status.

Citing intellectual luminaries ranging from Jawaharlal Nehru to Richard Feynman, Alan Turing, Thomas Edison, and Jennifer Doudna, Murthy highlighted how curiosity, imagination, and perseverance form the essential foundation for scientific breakthroughs.

"Research conducted in universities, laboratories, libraries, and companies emerges from curiosity, imagination, Socratic questioning, daring, and humility. The research process demands audacity, unbridled imagination, and resilience in the face of failure," he said.

Murthy further emphasized that research involves learning from setbacks rather than being defeated by them, avoiding repeated mistakes, and pursuing continuous improvement.

He recalled economist-philosopher Dr. Amartya Sen's influential perspective that development constitutes freedom, and his extensive research exploring the connection between these concepts.

"Economic and social sciences research helps us understand how science and technology translate into prosperity, justice, equity, freedom, and dignity. Humanities research reminds us that knowledge must ultimately serve ethical purposes," Murthy stated.

According to Murthy, diverse voices from Roosevelt and Bush to Nehru and Feynman, Turing and Edison, Fourier and Bhargava, Friedman and Sen, and Darwin and Doudna all converge on a singular theme—that research represents humanity's most noble collective endeavor.

"Research requires courage, persistence, and imagination. It connects science with society, reason with values, and ethics with dignity," he emphasized.

Murthy called upon India to renew its commitment to fostering robust research ecosystems. "This nurturing demands that we make our country an aspirational, meritocratic, competitive, welcoming, exciting, comfortable, rewarding, and enjoyable environment for researchers and their families—particularly for our young scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians, and humanists," he asserted.

"We have a sacred obligation to ensure these role models encounter a highly competitive intellectual environment that values a hierarchy of ideas rather than a hierarchy of titles and offices."

Murthy concluded that establishing such a research ecosystem represents an unwavering national duty, as research provides the only means to improve both India and the world.

"This approach alone will enable us to fulfill the aspirations of our founding fathers, who sacrificed their lives to create an India where even the poorest child in the most remote village would have access to nutrition, healthcare, shelter, education, and opportunities for a fulfilling life. The responsibility for realizing these dreams rests on the broad, daring, imaginative, and compassionate shoulders of the Infosys Prize laureates of 2025," he concluded.