Narayana Murthy calls for stronger research ecosystem to build a better India and a better world

Infosys Founder N. R. Narayana Murthy emphasised the critical role of research in shaping India’s future, as he addressed a gathering at the Infosys Science Foundation office in Bengaluru to announce the Infosys Prize 2025 winners across six categories — Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences.

Speaking to an audience of laureates, scholars, and industry leaders, Murthy said that the “need of the day for our country is to strengthen our national and institutional focus on research for a better India and for a better world.”

Quoting historical figures such as Marcus Aurelius, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vannevar Bush, and Jawaharlal Nehru, he underscored how visionary leadership and sustained investment in scientific inquiry have historically driven national progress. He cited Bush’s landmark 1945 report, “Science – The Endless Frontier,” as a turning point that made the United States a global research superpower.

Murthy connected this legacy to India’s aspirations, recalling Nehru’s belief that “it is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of superstition and deadening customs and traditions.”

Highlighting the spirit of curiosity that drives discovery, he quoted renowned scientists including Richard Feynman, Alan Turing, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, and Jennifer Doudna, as well as Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and Milton Friedman, and mathematician Manjul Bhargava. “Research is humanity’s noblest collective enterprise,” Murthy said, adding that it “bridges science and society, reason and values, ethics and dignity.”

Murthy urged policymakers and institutions to build a research ecosystem that is “aspirational, meritocratic, competitive, welcoming, rewarding and enjoyable for young scientists, engineers, economists, mathematicians, and humanists.” He called for an environment that values “hierarchy of ideas rather than hierarchy of titles and offices” and encourages freedom to “dream the unimaginable.”

Concluding his speech, Murthy invoked mathematician David Hilbert’s famous words, “We must know. We will know,” and said it was the sacred duty of researchers to help fulfil the dreams of India’s founding fathers — to ensure that every child in the remotest village has access to education, healthcare, and opportunity.

“Research is not a luxury,” Murthy said. “It is a necessity for human survival, dignity, and progress.”